Starting the Season Revised
by Bligy
Summary: A revised version of my original story that corrects two issues in the first chapter, which change the story completely. See inside for actual summary.
1. Take the Train

**Disclaimer: I own nothing 'cept my own ideas. There are bits of the first season finale somewhere in the middle, I don't own that either.**

**Summary: What if? A simple question. What if Rory went to New York while her and Dean were broken up in the first season? What if she met Jess? What if Jess ended up coming to Stars Hollow anyway?**

**A/N: There are HUGE amounts of differences between this story at the original story. This will be the story that the continuations are based off of.**

Today was the day, the last field trip of the year. For some strange reason, the English Department decided to take them to a Broadway production. There didn't seem to be any sense in the matter. After all, Broadway was known for musicals, not Shakespeare.

It seemed like an all around strange day, but for the girl sitting in the middle of the bus, it also happened to be a very sad day as well. Rory Gilmore was still attempting to get over her separation with Dean and the field trip was proving a 'distraction'. Her mother had told her that it would be a good for her to get out of the house and the school. Leaning her head against the window, her eyes took in the city.

They were almost there, and her heart was still heavy. This was supposed to be freedom, it was supposed to be fun… it was supposed to be a distraction. But it didn't seem to be working.

"Rory, it's time to go," barked her teacher, shocking her out of her little world.

"Right, sorry," she stammered and leapt to her feet and stumbled out of the bus.

Along with the Chilton students, there were some grungy looking students sitting around. She eyed a few of them, her eyes lingering for a few seconds on a boy who was reading a book. He looked dark and… well, handsome. As she observed, his eyes flickered up to hers and she quickly looked away, walking towards her group.

"Everyone come up and grab your tickets!" the teacher barked, yet again, and the students pooled around her.

The second that they were handed out, everyone began comparing tickets. As Rory was about to grab a ticket, which was attached to two others, Paris snatched them away from her. Rory turned and glared at the pompous brat when she tore the tickets and gave them to Madeline and Louise. This left Rory with the last ticket, which was no where near any of her other classmates. She took it and glanced down at it, feeling like ripping it to shreds.

"Time to go in, everyone find your seats and watch the show! There will be a take-home quiz on the elements to be written during the summer!" the teacher barked once more and all the students grumbled before filing in. Way to ruin a field trip.

Slowly, Rory turned back to look at the kid reading the book, but he was gone. She looked around, attempting to find him, but he wasn't there. Sighing, she turned back to walk inside, when she plowed right into said book-reader.

"Hey, watch it!" she snapped. He just scoffed at her, protecting his book. When he attempted to move away, she grabbed his arm, feeling bad. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," he said with a shrug, hiding the book behind his leg and waiting for her to let him go.

"Uh, I'm Rory," she stammered, attempting to at least talk, maybe even get his name.

"I'm Jess," he said, standing stiffly, as though waiting for her permission to go.

"I… like that book!" she stated, still attempted to get him to talk.

"Okay," he said with a shrug and looked at her as though waiting for her to say something interesting.

"Right, well, I, uh, bye!" she stammered, running away to her seat.

She felt his eyes on her and she turned just as she was entering into the doors of the theatre. Their eyes caught for a moment before she attempted to smile and darted around and to her seat. When she found it, she put her bag down and stormed over to the washroom.

Inside she found Louise and Madeline 'putting on their faces'. Avoiding them like the plague, she made her way into a stall and attempted to make herself see reason.

"Forget him, remember Dean… Dean," she muttered to herself and placed her head in her hands. "Don't be stupid… You… l-l-like Dean."

After almost beating herself to a pulp, she finally got her breathing under control and cracked open the door. Louise and Madeline were gone. That was good enough for her. Opening the door the entire way, she made it out to the sinks before she saw Paris washing her hands a few sinks down the way. Sighing, she washed her hands and darted out before Paris could say anything demeaning about the circumstances with Tristin.

While slinking back to her seat, for some strange reason, her eyes kept on looking for the boy. She was expending so much effort looking for him that didn't see anyone else around her. Sitting down, she placed her head in her hands and sighed in frustration.

"Bad day, Rory?" asked whoever was beside her… which was of course the boy that she'd been attempting to find.

"Oh, God!" she snapped, jumping and looking over at him.

He was smirking and his eyebrow was up in the air. Instantly she felt that she needed to defend herself and her outburst.

"You're… you're… shh!" she muttered, not being able to think of anything more witty to say, before jerking forward in her seat and attempting to ignore him.

"What?" he asked again, the expression not changing.

"Nothing!" she harped, before noticing the dimming lights, and pointed at the stage. "Look, people, music, watch!"

"Right," he stated with a firm nod, although the smirk was still firmly on his face, before his eyes turned down to his book

As the music rose, she couldn't help but notice that he still wasn't paying attention to the stage. The first song started and she found her eyes drifting back to him again. After the third song, her eyes were firmly glued to him.

"Why aren't you watching the show?" she asked him, before realizing that she had said it out loud. She instantly took on a defensive pose, ready for the snappy response she was almost assured to get.

One of his eyebrows flicked up again and he looked at her from under his heavily-gelled hair. "Why aren't you?" he asked.

"I am!" she indignantly replied and looked back to the stage again.

"Okay" he said with a shrug.

By the time the fifth song had come around, she was back to looking at him out of the corner of her eye. His eyes rose up as well and they linked for a few seconds before she realized that she was blushing and looked away, back at the stage, in enough time to figure out that it was intermission.

"Where are you guys from?" Jess asked, finally putting his book down.

"Chilton Academy… in Hartford," she responded, looking at him carefully.

"Nice," he said, sarcastically nodding his head.

"What about you?" she asked.

"Someplace, it doesn't matter," he told her with a shrug, looking down at his book as though he was regretting talking to her.

"Are you reading that for school?" she asked, attempting to remember if she'd had to read that or if it had just been fun.

"No," he told her with a shrug, not bothering to look up at her.

"Do you use radar?" she asked him, smiling a little bit.

"What?" he asked, looking up at her like she'd grown a new head.

"Can't you look at anyone when you talk to them?" she asked him.

"I'm looking at you," he told her with a smirk.

"That's now, but what about before?" she asked, finding her voice for the first time since she'd met him.

He shrugged. "Don't you want to go… freshen up?" he asked.

"No, no, I'm fine," she told him.

"Then, do you want something to drink?" he asked her, as though searching for something for her to be doing, other than pestering him.

"No, I'm still… fine," she told him, smiling to herself.

"Well, how about we go for a walk, then? I don't think that you want to watch this either," he said, nodding towards the stage.

Rory was about to tell him that she'd never agree to that when she heard the five minute call. Her mouth closed and her eyes looked over to the stage before traveling back to him again.

"Uh… yeah, I guess, sure," she told him, brushing hair behind her ear and standing up, moving out of the row and towards the exit.

"Great," he said, standing up and moving beside her.

They both stood and watched each other for a few seconds before they both moved towards the exit.

"So, why are you here?" Rory asked him, when they were out of the theatre itself.

"My mum told me I had to come," he stated with a shrug, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah…I didn't think that this was… well, uh," she muttered, attempting to figure out a way not to insult him.

"What?" he asked her with that smirk back on his face.

"You don't come here often, do you?" she asked him, phrasing it as nicely as she could.

"Don't look the type?" he asked her, smiling full on.

"No," she said, shrugging her shoulders and attempting not to look all that guilty for judging him.

"So, how do you like Hartford?" he asked her.

"It's fine, good," she said, attempting to answer him with as much enthusiasm as she could dare without appearing over-excited. She'd never left a fieldtrip before, especially not to go off with some New York boy. A frown bloomed over her face as she realized what she was doing, and she hesitated. There was going to be a test on this, wasn't there? She should go back.

"You alright?" he asked, actually starting a conversation.

"Yeah… what about you?" she asked, holding onto the fragile conversation topic and trying to keep herself from bolting.

"Okay," he told her with another shrug, but he watching her very closely. She took a deep breath and tried to calm the butterflies in her stomach. Was it him that was causing them, or the idea that she was, technically, skipping school? Or maybe it was the fact that she was skipping school to be with him.

"So… what other kinds of books do you read?" she asked him, attempting to distract herself.

"The classics," he said, attempting to avoid sounding like too much of a dork.

"Do you read much?" she asked.

"No," he said with a shrug.

"But…?" she asked, pointing at the very-worn book.

"Well, what is much?" he asked her with a shrug.

"How many times have you read that book?" she asked him curiously.

"About forty times," he answered with a small smirk.

"Much," she stated with a firm nod.

"Come on," Jess told her, grabbing one of her arms and pulling her towards the street. One of the ushers moved towards them quickly, as though to stop them, but Jess yanked harder and pulled her into the streets. He then proceeded to duck into the traffic of the busy city, thus avoiding all the people.

Her heart was racing when she realized that this was it. She couldn't just turn and run back into the theatre, she was about to go into New York with a boy that she'd just met. Why was she doing this? It didn't matter, her mind attempted to convince her. This was a distraction, even if it wasn't the one that she'd originally wanted.

"Do you do this a lot too?" she asked him, shouting above the noise.

"Yeah," he told her, dragging her towards a staircase that led down.

"Where are we going?" she asked, attempting to get some semblance of order into her suddenly chaotic afternoon.

"A place," he told her.

"Could you be anymore vague?" she asked with a small, nervous glance as they got to the bottom, just as a train was arriving.

"Good luck, come on," he told her absently, avoiding the previous question and dragging her into one of the trains before stealing two free seats before anyone else could.

"Where are we going?" she asked him again, giving him the full puppy dog eyes from her baby blues.

"It's a park," he told her finally, as though divulging this information was painful.

"Good, we've narrowed it down to a park… Central Park?" she asked, realizing that she only really knew of the one in New York.

"No, Washington State Park," he told her, amused with her lack of New York savvy, apparently.

"Never been there," she admitted.

"How well do you know Manhattan?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh…" she said, attempting to avoid the question.

"How many times have you been?" he asked her.

"Twice," she admitted a bit guiltily.

"An outsider, then," he said, his voice teasing.

"Come to Hartford, then you'll be the outsider," she taunted back, holding her head up and attempting to keep her dignity.

"Uh huh, it's hell," he told her openly.

"Hell?" she asked, confused.

"It's too small," he told her with a shrug.

"Hartford is huge! I mean… not as big as New York, but still bigger than… well, I uh," she mumbled, trailing off.

"Hartford, huh?" he asked her curiously.

"Yeah," she told him with a nod. Neither of them really knew what they were talking about. It was just… comfortable for some reason.

"Here, this is our stop," he told her, but she moved with him instead of him dragging her along.

"Good," she said as she stood up. Almost as soon as she stood up, someone stole her place. She looked a bit uneasy, but Jess grabbed her hand and led her out the train.

"Come on," he told her, nodding towards the surface. Rory nodded and they raced up the stairs together.

"Do you come here often?" she asked him.

"Yeah, it's cool," he told her, leading her to his favorite bench.

They sat down and a sudden awkwardness overtook her. He seemed to be content just to sit there, but her and her mother had never really cared for silences.

"So," she attempted, unable still to think up a good topic.

"So?" he asked her, leaning his elbows on his knees and turning to look at her.

"Where do you live?" she asked him, searching desperately for a topic.

"I live right there, center of Manhattan," he told her, pointing at a huge apartment a few blocks in front of them.

"Looks… tall," she said with a nod. She'd never really had to deal with tall things that much, but somehow she believed that that building would give her vertigo.

"Amazing view, though," he told her.

"Could we…?" she asked, hoping that she wasn't being rude… or forward. What would he think of her suggesting that they go to his house… she'd only known him for a few minutes. "Wait, that sounded-."

"Bad?" he asked her, smirking again.

"Yeah, I meant, not with the apartment, but I mean the view and the city and, not the-." she stammered.

"Sure, let's go," he told her, standing up and leading towards his house.

"Do we need to go in the subway?" she asked him, not really wanting to go back again.

"Not if you don't want to. We still have an hour or two to kill," he told her with a shrug.

"Have you seen it before?" she asked him curiously.

His silence answered for her. So much for not seeing the musicals all that much, but then of course, he'd also said that he didn't read either. She shrugged the comment off and followed him so that he wouldn't have to touch her again. It wasn't that she didn't like it… it was more that she was scared that she'd do something stupid. He wasn't exactly the type of boy she was used to.

"You alright?" he asked again.

"Yeah, I'm fine!" she said, her voice a little higher than normal.

He hesitated in his step to turn back and give her a look, but kept trudging on to the apartment.

"Why do you keep asking?" she asked him curiously.

"No reason," he explained… or didn't.

"Okay," she accepted, in hopes of dropping the subject. She nodded her head and followed him in silence.

This time, however, the silence wasn't really numbing. The city was a lot louder than the park. Fortunately, with her thoughts running wild with images of the strange, monosyllabic boy in front of her; who she was currently observing with her full concentration, she barely realized that they'd stopped talking. Her mind was running crazy with thoughts, mostly telling her that he was very attractive. Almost instantly, she looked away and attempted to follow him without directly looking at him. Unfortunately, this also meant that she lost him in the crowd.

"Jess?" she shouted, looking around and jumping. Almost instantly she lost her sense of direction. "Jess!?"

"Hey, don't do that," Jess stated, coming up from behind her and grabbing her arm.

Almost as if it was cued, a little spark ignited on her arm, even through the clothing. She almost felt like pulling back, but that hadn't worked too well last time. While he turned around, his hand slid down her arm and captured her hand in his, so that she wouldn't be able to get lost again. Her hand burnt where his skin touched hers.

"Sorry!" Rory attempted to shout over the noise, hoping to start some sort of conversation to distract from the warm that she was feeling.

"It's alright, just stay near me," he told her.

She doubted that she'd be able to get away from him now that he had such a firm grasp on her hand, but… there was always the chance that they would accidentally let go. Right, of course, that was why she tightened her hand around his. Or at least that was what she was telling herself.

"We're here," he told her, letting her hand go and pulled her into the foyer. It was dimly lit, but there were no blinking lights, so it wasn't that bad.

"Great," she said, trailing after him into the apartment and sticking to him as he stalked up the thousands of stories of stairs. To put it mildly, she wasn't a stair person, so she was panting a little bit when they finally reached the fifteen something-ish floor.

"I guess you don't do stairs?" he asked her, noticing the panting.

"No stairs… not really," she stated, leaning against a wall.

Jess smirked and moved over so he was leaning against the wall with her. They both sat there as she caught her breath. Despite the fact that he smoked, was a bookworm, and otherwise didn't do any sort of sports, he still had more stamina than your run of the mill jock. Stairs could do that to a person, especially when you lived on the top floor.

"Ready?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow and nodding towards the roof door.

"Yeah, let's go," she said, only the hint of breathlessness on her voice now.

Jess nodded and leaded the way to the door. He shoved it open and led her out onto the roof. The wind was a lot worse.

"If you're not used to it, it can get scary," he told her, offering his hand.

Was this just an excuse to touch her? In her stubborn pride, she moved past the hand, where she then saw the city skyline. Instantly her stomach crawled into itself, and her legs started shaking. So, this was vertigo, there was an instant consensus with her body and mind that she didn't care for heights. Just as she was about to turn and bolt, she felt arms snake around her waist and couldn't help but lean into them.

"Scary," she muttered.

"Tired to warn you," he told her and she felt him shrug behind her.

"Yup," she nodded, watching the little specs that were people moving around.

"See that? There's Broadway, Empire State, Central Park, Washington State Park," he told her, pointing them out, but still keeping one arm around her waist.

"This is nice," she told him, finding herself relaxing against him.

"Yeah, you should come here more often," he told her, and she felt his nose against the back of her head. What was he doing?

"That would be nice," she told him, as she suddenly felt something other than his nose pressed against her neck. Her body tensed up, almost as though warning her about Dean-cheatage, but… they weren't dating anymore. Nevertheless, when he felt her tense, he pulled back.

"Sorry," he said, backing off a little bit.

"No, it's alright… I just, y'know, bad break-up," she told him while turning around, trying not to chase him away.

"Whatever," he told her with a shrug.

Then, before she knew what was going on, she dove into him and kissed him. It took a few seconds before he responded, but when he did, she felt the flames that had ignited on her hand and arm spread between the two of them. Their arms wrapped around each other, pulling their bodies closer.

"Rory," Jess muttered against her lips.

"Mhm?" Rory asked, leaning into him. One of her hands was in his hair and the other was around his waist.

"The show's letting out in a few minutes," he told her, having just noted what time of day it was.

"What?" Rory asked, breathless. "I have to be on that bus." She turned and bolted towards the stairs.

"Rory! Rory, wait!" Jess shouted after her, catching his wits and trying not to let her get lost.

"I have to get on that bus!" she shrieked again, tearing down the stairs.

"Then let me help you!" he told her, grabbing her and yanking her back again.

"Come on!" she told him, pushing towards the next stairwell.

"Okay, okay," he told her, his voice sounding a little bit annoyed.

"Jess?" she asked him, her eagerness to catch the bus suddenly deflating a little bit with his anger.

"What?" he asked, his voice snapping just a little bit.

"I'm sorry, that was… nice, and I wasn't being-," she attempted to explain.

"Whatever," he told her, leading her towards the exit and then through the streets.

"Jess, wait a second," she asked, tugging on his hand a little bit.

"Let's just catch the subway," he told her, directing them down another staircase.

Rory didn't particularly want to go underground again, but she had just severely wounded his male ego. She'd never really had to worry about that with Dean. This was definitely a new experience. Thus, she would go with it. Unfortunately for her plan to talk with him, the train appeared the second that they stepped down the stairs, they had to run to catch it.

"Let's go," he told her, letting go of her hand and marching into the train. Seeing as how he stole two seats, however, it was obvious that he wasn't totally pissed off.

"Jess-," she attempted again.

"It's alright," he told her with another shrug.

"Jess, please," she asked, putting a hand on his arm.

It was more the touch than the words that attracted his attention. He looked up at her with a look that was almost hostile, but mostly questioning.

"That was nice, I just can't miss this bus," she told him.

"I know," he told her with a shrug, before looking forward again.

She was just about to try again when the doors opened. He dragged her out and was about to take her up when she turned him around again. As his face turned to her, she noted that it was about to scold her for bringing up the subject again. Instead of words, however, she simply kissed him.

He responded eagerly, her sins of the past instantly forgotten. His hands slid around her waist and ran up and down her back. One of her hands laced into his hair and the other braced itself on his back.

"Forgiven?" Rory asked, looking up at him hopefully.

Jess leaned down and kissed her lightly again. "Forgiven," he agreed, then took her hand and led her up to the surface, where the theatre was right across the street.

Fortunately, the bus wasn't even there yet, and the students didn't appear to have gotten out. Rory let out a breath and Jess smirked at her.

"See, I told you that I'd get you here in time," he told her, leading her across the street and to one of the benches outside.

"Thank you," she told him, letting him lead her again.

"It's nothing," he told her with a shrug, and pulled her onto his lap.

Almost instantly they began kissing again. Why was she addicted to this; especially seeing as how she'd probably never see him again? That would be the hard question. Unfortunately, as she was pondering, she pulled back for air in time enough to see the kids leaving the theatre.

"Looks like they're being let out," Rory said, feeling nice about the 'interaction' thus far and almost sad that it was coming to an end.

"Yeah," Jess stated. He was claming up again.

"Oh my God!" she cursed, suddenly remembering the test. "I didn't see any of it! I'm going to fail!"

"Fail? What are you talking about?" he asked her, his hands still on her waist.

"The test!" she said, like it would explain everything.

"What test?" he prodded, trying to get her to speak in coherent sentences.

"The test that I'm supposed to be doing over the summer on that show which I didn't watch because I was out hanging with you, oh my God! I'm a slacker, I skipped school to hang out with a boy I just met and I kissed him and… I'm a tramp!" she said, flailing just slightly. Jess watched her in awe as she didn't appear to breathe through the entire freak out.

Instead of trying to calm her down, he grabbed the back of her head and pulled her down so that he was kissing her again. She seemed tense for a second, then quickly responded.

"You won't fail, I'll take you to it again," he promised her when they broke apart to breathe.

"You will?" she asked him, her eyes wide and believing.

"Yeah, during the summer," he assured her with a small smirk.

"Summer," she repeated, as if not believing it.

"Rory!" the teacher barked at her, the other students already filing onto the bus.

"Uh… I guess I have to go," she told him, getting up and walking away from him. She hesitated, looked back at him, and then turned to walk away again.

"Wait," he told her, grabbing her arm and turning her around.

"Wha-?" she asked, and it was about all she could get out before he kissed her.

Their arms wrapped around each other automatically before Rory pulled away, realizing that her classmates were right behind her.

"Oh, wow… that wasn't supposed to happen," she whispered to herself before pulling away completely and giving him a look before turning towards the bus again.

"Wait!" he shouted again, grabbing her hand and pulling her back into another kiss before he pulled back so he could kiss down her neck.

"Jess…" she said, her mind wanting to pull away but her body was responding to him without her permission.

"Hmm?" he mumbled through his kisses.

"I have to go, bus, ride, school," she told him, although going onto the bus was the last thing on her mind.

"What's your number?" he asked her, pulling away enough to face her.

"Number?" Rory asked. Her mind was completely blank. It was as though she was walking on cloud nine, she'd never felt this way with Dean.

"Yeah, your phone number?" he asked her, the smirk back on his face and his eyebrow popped again.

"Miss Gilmore!" the teacher summoned again.

"I have to go!" Rory suddenly realized, breaking apart from Jess.

"Rory, what's your number?" he shouted after her when she was halfway across the lot.

Rory shouted it back to him before entering into the bus with a very large grin on her face. If it weren't for the fact that she was so happy, she probably would have noticed everyone staring at her. After all, she had just made out with a strange boy from a strange, 'public', school in broad daylight in front of her classmates.

"Who's that?" Paris asked her, obviously not impressed with their kissing.

"Jess… his name is Jess," Rory stated, still out of it. Her cloud had yet to pop.

The ride back was a lot easier than the ride there. At least she wasn't completely depressed. The ride was an hour or two, but with all the questions, it seemed more like ten minutes. Before she knew it, she was off the bus and drifting into the school.

"So, I'm a little tired of this game," a voice scolded the second she had her feet on the ground.

"What game?" she asked, seeing Tristin out of the corner of her eye. Instantly her mood was ruined. She attempted to keep Jess in her mind, but it really wasn't working. She had a feeling that her exceptionally good day was about to be ruined.

"Are we meeting there or what?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, the memory slipping with her anger. After all, Tristin had just told the entire school that she was going to a concert with him, despite her growing friendship with Paris.

"The concert's tonight," he reminded her.

"Well I hope you and the empty seat next to you have a lot of fun," she snapped at him, storming away again, hoping to get away before she started raging on him.

"I'm starting to get a little irritated here," he stormed, walking beside her.

"So am I," she snapped, waving her hand at him as though to get him to go away. Her other hand held her books tightly to her chest.

"What are you mad about?" he asked, stopping her with a hand on her arm. She jerked away, both of her hands now clutching the books.

"You've been telling everyone that I'm going to this thing with you," she yelled in his face.

"Just a couple," he said, shaking the words off.

"You told Paris. Paris and I had just started getting along and now she hates me again," she informed, anger lacing every word. Suddenly Jess was pushed to the background as she took to yelling at him.

"Well, the damage is done. You may as well go to PJ Harvey with me," he coaxed.

"Never, never, I am never going anywhere with you, ever," she half-screamed and walked away again, towards the front yard. She hugged her books to her chest, hoping that Tristin would just go away so she could continue to be happy about the freak incident in New York.

"You know, these tickets cost me a fortune," he told her, stopping her again.

"They cost your daddy a fortune," she reminded him, pushing him away and started towards the courtyard again, moving faster.

"I don't even know anybody else who's into this stupid guy," Tristin whined.

"PJ Harvey's a woman," Rory hissed at him, although anyone who didn't know her that well could easily mistake it for a roar. That was nothing, although, compared to when he stole her books from her arms, simply slipping them from her grasp. "What are you doing?"

"You'll get them back when you agree to go with me," he teased, his tone still very serious, though, as he held the books a good foot away from her.

"You're pathetic, Tristan, keep the books. I'm leaving," she told him, her last straw having been drawn. Turning, she marched away from him, but was stopped cold in her tracks by the third shock of the day.

"Dean?" she asked upon seeing her ex-boyfriend in the parking lot. He was standing beside his car, obviously waiting for her. "Dean, what are you doing here?"

"I'm leaving," he told her, his arms flailing angrily as he attempted to get into his car.

"Don't go," she begged, rushing towards him and standing in front of the door to block him off.

"I shouldn't have come," he told her, backing away and attempting to not to get too near her.

"No wait!" she asked, shaking her head and walking towards him again.

"I feel like an idiot," he hissed, staying very clearly out of her reach.

"Why?" she asked, attempting to reason.

"'Cause I come all the way out here, and I see you with him," he snapped, pointing at Tristin. A momentary rush of shock echoed through her body as she thought for a second that he was talking about Jess. But… he couldn't know about Jess, could he? That was stupid. Instead, she went with reasoning the current issue. But… what about Jess? He was going to call her over the summer.

"No, Tristin was just…" she attempted to explain, but she couldn't find the words with the Jess-panic rising within her.

"I don't care," he told her, biting out each word, while attempting to throw her off. He moved past her and towards the door again.

"No listen," she stated, attempting to get to him before he took off again.

"He's got your books, Rory," he pointed out. For a second, she almost wanted to tell him that he was merely pointing out the obvious, but she bit that back and attempted to reason this as well.

"But he took them and wouldn't give them back. Please just tell me why you're here," she asked him, reaching out a hand for him again.

"I don't even know," he told her, stopping and flailing his arms again.

"Yes you do," she told him. The hope that was welling up inside her at being back with Dean seemed to be dashed with the idea of Jess back in New York.

"'Cause I thought you… forget it," he told her, doing the flailing arm things once again.

"No say it," she asked him, reaching out and finally getting an arm on his shoulder.

"I thought you were trying to talk to me," he finally, stated, some of his steam draining.

"Oh," she said, hope and disappointment somehow laced in the words and her arm fell away. She was hoping that he didn't notice the disappointment.

"I mean, you came to my house," he told her, the hope in his voice obvious.

"That wasn't me," she begged off innocently.

"My sister recognized you from the pictures in my box," he told her, shaking his head as though ashamed that she'd even attempt to contradict him.

"In what box?" she asked with amusement in her words.

"The box of stuff I have of us. Pictures and letters and everything from you," he told her. His eyes darted around, as though making sure no one else heard the comment.

"You have a Rory box?" she asked, almost happy that she wasn't the only one who was miserable with their situation; or at least… until three hours ago.

"And what was going on at the town meeting? All that stuff about writing a song?" he asked her, more of a suggestion.

"I don't know what I was talking about!" Rory exclaimed, finally doing the arm flailing. It was her term to steam.

"That had nothing to do with me? Well I must have imagined it all then. Your boyfriend's waiting," he snapped again, the kettle was boiling.

"He's not my boyfriend, I hate him!" Rory told him, reasoning once more.

"Whatever," he hissed and pushed past her again.

"Dean!" Rory begged.

"What?" he shouted back at her.

"Stop," she told him.

"Why?" he asked her, finally turning to face her head on.

"Because I-," she hesitated for a second. Could she really say this after what just happened at New York? What about Jess? What were the chances of him even calling her again? Slim to none. Despite the resolve that she felt, something in her heart was still fluttering for the dark, book-obsessed boy she'd just met.

"I l-," she began again before hesitating and looking down. She didn't… did she? She had just spent the last few months pining over him, waiting for him, to come to this decision. She looked up, tears in her eyes, and saw the desperation written on his face. "I'm sorry."

The words were like a blanket over them, capturing them in their own little world. Their eyes caught and they both hesitated, knowing what was going to happen next. Someone would have to break contact. The tears welling in her eyes finally spilled over and she blinked them away looking down and turning. She walked slowly back to the school. The motor on his truck revved and she wrapped her arms around herself, crying silently.

"Rory-," Tristin began, having seen the entire thing, but she pushed him away.

Still crying, she ran into the building and to the girl's bathroom. She didn't notice if there were other people in the stalls. Instead, she went to an empty stall and sat on the toilet, holding her head in her hands. After a few seconds, she heard water running, but didn't hear the bathroom door. Her stall door opened slowly and Paris looked inside, confused.

"Are you okay?" she asked her, obviously tense and still angry at her.

"I'm fine," Rory grumbled, wiping tears off her face.

"Why are you so upset? First you get Tristin, and now that boy in New York-," she started, and Rory felt a burst of anger run through her body.

"I didn't agree to go with Tristin!" she screamed, shocking both of them.

"Rory-," Paris said, stammering as though attempting to calm her down.

"No, I didn't agree to go with Tristin. He bought the tickets and lied to everyone to make me go with him. I'm not going with Tristin. I will never go with Tristin. If you want Tristin, take him!" Rory ranted, standing up and getting into Paris's face.

"He doesn't want me," Paris muttered, backing out of the stall and away from Rory.

"That's not my fault," Rory snapped, following her.

"What about that boy in New York?" Paris snapped back, trying to get to higher ground again.

"His name is Jess..." she said, but was unable to find any more words to use.

"And what, I thought that you were still getting over Dean?" Paris asked. Her moral high ground seeming to shatter for a few seconds as concern replaced it.

"Dean was just here…" Rory said, feeling another tear running down her cheek.

"Why are you so upset, why didn't you get back together? That way you can stop moping around here like you have been for the past few weeks," Paris mumbled at her.

"I don't love him," Rory stated. She knew the words were true, but they still hurt.

"Is that what this is all about?" Paris asked her curiously. Rory knew that Paris had never been in a relationship, she'd told her so with the Tristin situation, so the question didn't come as out of place as it might have from someone else.

"Why do you care?" Rory asked, splashing a little water on her face.

"I don't," Paris replied indignantly.

"Then why did you ask?" Rory demanded, not quite why she was angry at Paris.

"Because all you've been doing lately is walking around like a zombie," Paris finally appeased.

"A zombie?" Rory asked, wrinkling her nose a little bit.

"Yeah, you know… fictional creation, resembles a dead person walking around," Paris clarified, and Rory gave her a 'look'. Paris didn't get the meaning of the 'look' and gave her one back. "What?"

"I'm not a zombie," Rory objected, shuffling away from her and back out into the hallway.

The second that she stepped out, Tristin was waiting for her. She stopped for a moment to glare at him angrily, and then pushed past him. He grabbed her arm causing her to whip around to further glare at him.

"What?" she growled.

"Come to the concert with me. You don't have any reason to say no," he attempted once more.

"Yes, I do. I hate you, I don't want to have anything to do with you," Rory snapped, yanking her arm away once more. She was about to run away again when she noticed her books in his arms. "Give me those."

"Not until you agree to come with me," he repeated teasingly.

"No, for the last time, no!" she shouted. Angrily, she grabbed her books and took off down the hallway.

"Rory!" he called, following her.

"Go away!" she yelled back, turning the corner and going to her locker.

She opened it harshly and grabbed her bag. Its contents were shoved into it without thought. Today had started out as a bad day, proceeded to a good day, and then ended in a 'really' bad day. She was shoving the last portion of her locker's contents into her bag when Paris appeared.

"God! What now?" she snapped.

"You weren't lying about Tristin," Paris said, and Rory wasn't sure if it was a statement or a question.

"I told you," Rory shrugged, zipping up her backpack and closing her locker with a slam.

"I'm sorry," Paris finally said when she was ready to run away.

"What?" she asked, turning back to look at her.

"I'm sorry… about Tristin," Paris said confidently, standing up straight and rigid.

"You are?" Rory was floored. Paris was apologizing?

"Yes… You won't get the pavement article, and I can help you on the musical test… seeing as how you probably weren't paying attention," she consoled, before turning on her heel to walk away. Rory, who was still stunned, stayed where she was and Paris turned around to face her again. "Have a good summer. I'll call you."

"Thanks…" Rory said when Paris was already halfway down the hall. "Have a good summer too!"

Paris turned to smile sheepishly as she rounded the corner. Rory smiled back. This day had been a roller coaster. Sighing, she picked up her backpack and took her cell phone out.

"_Furby's House of Fluffies! Meeting all your fluffy needs," _chanted Lorelai on the other side of the line.

"Hey mom," Rory greeted.

"_Rory! How was the field trip?"_ Lorelai asked, her voice ringing with her normal cheer.

"It was… good," Rory danced, trying to figure out how to mention Jess.

"_Good? What show did you see?"_ Lorelai inquired, her voice toning down a bit. The noises in the background suggested she was at the diner.

"Does Luke know you're talking to me?" Rory evaded, hoping that her mother would forget the question. She couldn't remember what show she 'saw'.

"_Nope,"_ Lorelai chirped, back to her cheery self. The second that the last word was out of her mouth, Luke shouted at her to get out.

"Hey mom, could you come get me?" Rory asked. She didn't want to take the bus. Actually, she didn't want to be alone.

"_Why? What's the matter?"_ Lorelai demanded, ignoring Luke, who was still yelling in the background.

"Dean was here," Rory told her, hugging her backpack strap.

"_Aww, Sweetie, what happened?"_ Lorelai asked. Rory heard the sound of the Diner's bell, and then the sound of a door opening and closing on a car.

"I'll tell you when you get here, okay?" Rory said, wrapping her free arm around her stomach when hugging the strap wasn't giving her any comfort.

"_Alright, I'll be there in ten minutes,"_ Lorelai informed her.

"No speeding," Rory chastised.

"_Fine, twenty minutes,"_ Lorelai pouted.

They hung up and Rory was left alone in the almost empty school. She dragged her feet out of the building, through the gates, and to the road. When she got there, the last car drove away, officially leaving her alone. Her thoughts battled each other for dominance, but Jess and whether or not to tell her mother about him hit the top three. Nervously she laced her fingers on her knees, which she'd pulled up to her chest. She leant her head against her knees and bit her lip. She hadn't gotten anywhere near deciding when the jeep pulled around the corner.

"Hey mom," she said in greeting as she threw her backpack into the back seat and slithered onto the seat.

"Hey Sweetie… are you alright?" Lorelai returned, watching her daughter carefully.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rory chirped, although it was obvious that there was something she was hiding.

"So what happened with you and Dean?" Lorelai directed.

"Oh, right, Dean… he came to see me, but…" Rory paused, realizing that she wasn't that upset anymore. Why wasn't she upset? Just that morning, she'd been totally distraught because she loved him but couldn't talk to him. Now it was like all those emotions were non existent memories.

"But…?" Lorelai prodded, realizing that there was something very wrong with this situation.

"I don't know, I don't love him," Rory whispered, looking at her hands.

"You don't love him?" Lorelai further questioned, attempting to get the situation clear in her mind.

"He came all the way here to see me, because I was trying to see him yesterday… but I don't know, when he got here I just… I couldn't say it. I don't know why, but I don't love him… I just… don't," Rory said, feeling tears arriving again.

"It's okay, baby," Lorelai told her, pulling over to the side of the road so that she could hug her daughter. She kissed the top of her head lightly and ran her hand up and down her arm.

"What does love feel like?" Rory asked curiously.

"You're asking the wrong person," Lorelai joked and kissed her forehead again.

A few minutes later, they arrived at Luke's. The Diner-man himself was busy running around, harassing guests and serving coffee. Rory and Lorelai took up their normal seat just inside the door. Rory put her head down on the table, sulking, while Lorelai shouted out a dire need for coffee.

"Luke!" Lorelai whined, which earned her a decent glare. The diner was packed, which meant that they weren't going to be served first, like they normally were.

"Where are you going?" Rory muttered when her mother, stealthily, rose from her seat and dashed to the counter. Before Luke noticed, she grabbed the spare coffee pot and two cups, which she then dashed back to the table with.

Rory joined in the coffee-stealing the second that the cup was on the table. She took the pot and poured the two cups all the way up to the brim. When they were filled, Lorelai took the coffee pot back behind the counter and inched back to the table, making sure to avoid Luke.

"Ah, coffee," Lorelai cooed, taking a sip.

"You said it," Rory agreed, echoing her mother's sip.

"So, what do you two…" Luke started, and then saw the coffee cups. "Wait a minute-."

"Cheeseburger!" Lorelai chirped cheerfully, distracting Luke from the coffee.

"How did you get those?" Luke demanded after writing down her order.

"Ceaser," Rory told him with a serious face.

"Ceaser doesn't come out of the kitchen. Lorelai-," he started again, turning toward the older Gilmore.

"I wanna cheeseburger too!" Rory burst in, cutting him off once again.

"You know what, nevermind," Luke grumbled as he swept back to the kitchen.

"Hey mom, I'm going to be right back, alright?" Rory said absently when she saw Lane motioning frantically to her from the square.

"Okay, Sweetie," Lorelai told her, instantly claiming her daughter's partially finished coffee when she left the diner.

Rory ran out to the gazebo, where Lane was lying in wait, and sat down anxiously beside her.

"Alright, what's the news?" Lane demanded, as though there was something very specific that she was asking for.

"News?" Rory asked, feeling like there was a lump in her throat. Why was it that she was so scared everyone was going to find out about Jess?

"Yeah, Dean left a couple hours ago, he said that he was going to see you," Lane prodded.

"Oh," Rory muttered, feeling relief and disappointment at the same time.

"That's it, just 'oh'? Come on. Give me something to work with here!" Lane half-shouted, attracting the attention of quite a few passer bys.

"Nothing happened," Rory told her, shrinking a little bit in her seat.

"What?" Lane deadpanned, all of her former enthusiasm seeming to wilt. "Wait a minute… you saw Dean, but… nothing happened?"

"I met someone else," Rory admitted guiltily.

"Where?" Lane inquired with a frown, before it dawned on her. "You had your New York trip today!"

"Yup," Rory further conceded, feeling a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Details!" Lane demanded, grabbing her hands and squeezing them.

"His name is Jess," Rory gushed, blushing worse and looking anywhere but her friend's intense gaze.

"Jess what?" Lane pressed.

"I… I don't know," Rory murmured, suddenly realizing how little she knew about him.

"Well… what happened?" Lane continued. Her face was showing a bit of shock. "I mean… something must have happened for you to turn Dean down."

"I kissed him," Rory admitted, blushing further.

"You what?!" Lane shrieked, not even attempting to hide her shock.

"Shh! I kissed him," Rory whispered again.

"When, where, and how was it?" Lane said, returning the whisper and crouched on the seat.

"During school, at his apartment… and it was amazing!" Rory swooned.

"Wait… you skipped the show to go to a boy's apartment… and you kissed him?" Lane clarified, looking both shocked and excited.

"Yup," Rory replied nervously, wringing her hands.

"What does he look like, can I meet him?" Lane instantly inquired.

"He's… well… he's…" Rory sputtered, having never been particularly good at relaying appearances.

"Is he hot?" Lane suggested.

Rory didn't respond, she simply nodded, biting her lip thoughtfully. Lane squeezed her hands again, letting a strand of "Oh my God!" rants and then seemed to sober herself. It was obvious that she was going to start in with more questions when something else crossed her face.

"But wait… if he's in New York, and you're here… Is your mom going to let you see him?" Lane inquired, the math in her head not quite working out.

"I don't know… should I tell her?" Rory returned, relaying the question that her mind had been asking since she'd left him.

"Well… what's he like?" Lane asked, more calm now. The novelty of having a New York boyfriend was wearing off, now came the issue of whether or not he was worthy. Rory could read those thoughts written all over her friend's face.

As she was just about to answer, her phone rang and she had to break apart from her friend to answer it. She searched her person for a few seconds until she found it. The caller ID said that it was an unknown number.

"Hello?" she asked when she flipped it open. Behind the breathing of whoever called were the sounds of the city, New York City to be precise.

"_Hey," _Jess's voice said, and the butterflies in her stomach went wild.

"Hey, one second," she told him and gave Lane a hand signal saying she'd be right back. She jumped off the gazebo and ran towards the outer parts of the town, where not as many people would be listening.

"_Is this a bad time?"_ he asked after a few seconds.

"No, I'm just trying to get to a place with a little less noise," she explained as she wrapped an arm around her stomach, trying to keep herself from becoming too fluttery.

"_Is there a lot of noise in Hartford_?" he inquired casually.

"Oh… Stars Hollow, I don't actually live in Hartford," she replied and jumped a little bit when Lane appeared over her shoulder. The frantic school-girl silent-screaming was back as Lane realized who it was.

"_You don't, huh?"_ he continued.

"Nope, I've lived her all my life. But my grandparents live in Hartford and I go to school in Hartford so I spend a lot of time there," she carried on, grinning like an idiot.

"_That's cool,"_ he rang out, and the conversation died for a second. Rory was thinking of something to say to him when Lane snatched the phone out of her hand.

"Hello?" Lane half-demanded into the phone.

"_Uh… Hey, who's this?"_ Jess asked. Rory danced around, attempting to get the phone back while still listening to the conversation.

"This is Rory's best friend. Are your intentions honorable?" Lane full-demanded, looking very stern; quite a bit like Mama-Kim, in fact.

"_Could you put Rory back on?"_ Jess scoffed as Rory managed to snag the phone back, scolding Lane for having taken it.

"Jess, hi, I'm sorry, that's Lane. She's a bit overprotective," Rory explained while fending her friend off.

"_It's cool, but I was wondering if you wanted to come out here this weekend,"_ he invited, and Rory stopped fighting for a minute in shock. Lane, noticing her friend's weakened state, stopped grasping for the phone in favor of mouthing 'This weekend?' at her friend in awe.

"I guess… I mean sure! That'd be great," Rory replied when she finally found her voice.

"_Do you think you could find Washington Square Park again?"_ he asked.

"That's the one we went to today, right? Yeah, I think so. When do you want to meet?" she attempted to clarify, unable to believe that she was saying what she was saying. Lane was gaping at her like a fish out of water, also attempting to figure out what her best friend was doing.

"_Whenever,"_ Jess stated, and she could almost see the shrug.

"How about eight?" Rory suggested and was greeted by a frown from Lane.

"_As in morning?"_ Jess groaned.

"Yup," Rory chirped, pleased for some strange reason.

"_If I'm not there, you'll have to come wake me up,"_ he half-agreed, but he sounded sulky about it.

"But I don't know your apartment number, I don't even know your last name," she told him.

"_1507 and Mariano,"_ he informed her.

"Great… Gilmore," she stammered out, happy to have gotten more information from him.

"_Gilmore?"_ he asked, obviously not sure what she was talking about.

"Oh! Gilmore as in Rory Gilmore," she clarified. Lane's face was now pressed against hers. If she couldn't have the phone, then she was most definitely going to listen to the conversation.

"_Great, so… I'll see you tomorrow. This is long distance, and I've run out of change. If your friend is still there, tell her that I'm not going to ravage you, at least not unless you ask me_," he said, the whisper of a laugh on his voice.

"I'll tell her… Bye Jess," Rory whispered.

"_Bye Rory,"_ he returned. Despite Lane being there, the moment felt intimate and close. Even after the line clicked dead, he'd run out of time, Rory hesitated in putting her phone down.

"Oh my God!" Lane shrieked the second it was closed, and jumped up and down, holding onto Rory's hand. Rory was very stationary. It was mostly due to the shock of the situation she'd just found herself in.

"I can't tell my mom," Rory finally realized.

"Why not?" Lane stopped her jumping to ask.

"Would you let your only daughter go to New York to meet someone… by themselves?" Rory explained, wilting a little bit at the thought.

"Well… no, not without meeting him and interrogating him and, oh my God I'm turning into my mother!" Lane lamented, grabbing onto Rory's sleeve in grief.

"No… you're just not crazy," Rory consoled, realizing that she actually was crazy enough to attempt to pull this off.

"But you're going, right?" Lane asked, seemingly desperate for this to happen.

"Yeah," Rory whispered, coming out of her shock a little bit more.

"Okay," Lane said with a firm nod and grabbed her friend's hand. "Then we'll need a plan."

"A plan?" Rory wearily inquired as Lane started dragging her back to the gazebo.

"Yeah, to get rid of your mom, and I'm the master of plans involving getting rid of parents," Lane stated with confidence, and Rory could most definitely say that Lane had managed to get out of quite a few scrapes involving her mother.

"Oh, right," Rory confirmed lifelessly. She didn't want to lie to her mother. She didn't want to be in this situation. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

"Why?" Lane asked her, cheerful at the idea of being able to plan someone else's escape.

"Because my mom is my best friend, I tell her everything. I can't lie to her," Rory said more to herself than to Lane.

"Oh yeah…" Lane muttered, as if the idea that this wasn't a situation like her and her mother had just occurred to her.

"What am I going to do?" Rory asked desperately, her voice a bit too loud for her own good.

"What are you going to do about what?" her mother replied as she appeared at the mouth of the gazebo.

"Dean," Lane recovered quickly, looking to Rory for support in her claims.

"Yes, Dean…" Rory continued on, although it was obvious to see that both girls were grasping at straws.

"Dean, huh?" Lorelai prodded, her eyes looking between them sharply.

"You know, my mom and I are going to this prayer rally tomorrow. Why doesn't Rory come along? It's at the Hartford Mall, so we can skip a few activities to do a little shopping. Maybe it'll help?" Lane suggested before Rory could screw anything up for herself.

"A prayer rally?" Lorelai deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at her daughter, who smiled back with a shrug.

"God, food and shoes, what could be better?" Rory stated, hating having to lie to her mother. Fortunately, Lane took it from there.

"We're leaving tomorrow morning at five and we won't be back until…" Lane trailed off a little bit as she looked past Lorelai to Rory, who was motioning 'nine' with her fingers. "Nine!"

"Wait… that's over twelve hours," Lorelai pointed out, glancing at both of the girls in confusion.

"Yeah, it's the long one. In fact, I think that Mama might want to stay overnight there," Lane suggested and noted Rory's eyes growing huge and her frantic motions of 'stop!', but she ignored them. "After all, it's going to be going pretty late. We wouldn't want to wake you up in the middle of the night."

"Uh huh," Lorelai replied sarcastically, obviously not buying a word of it. "Why don't I come over and talk to your mother about it?"

"You 'want' to talk to 'my' mother?" Lane asked, blinking and moving away from Lorelai as though she had suddenly developed a rare disease.

"Good point," Lorelai muttered, but sighed and looked at the two girls. Both of them were looking hopeful, but Rory also looked guilty. "There isn't something that you two are hiding, is there?"

"Hiding, nope, not a thing!" Lane chirped, not allowing Rory to speak because she would ruin it all.

"So you're asking me if you can go to Hartford for the weekend… the day before you leave?" Lorelai re-stated.

"Dean-," both girls began at the same time, and then gave each other 'looks'. Lane won the 'looking' contest and Rory backed down.

"I just thought that it would be good to get out of town for a couple of days! You know, before the rumor mill starts," Lane finally assured.

"So you're not going to meet someone in Hartford that you don't want me to know about?" Lorelai finally asked.

"Uh… nope, just a prayer rally, although there might be some guys there. You never know, pigs have been known to fly," Lane rambled, still trying to get out as many words as she could before Rory piped in and ruined in all.

"Rory?" Lorelai asked, hoping her daughter would enter into the conversation at some point.

"Yup?" Rory chirped, keeping her involvement to a minimum, which was obviously worrying by the look on her mother's face.

"You want to go to a prayer rally?" Lorelai implored, attempting to get an answer out of her daughter that was more than one syllable.

"First time for everything," Rory explained, linking arms with her mother and leading her towards the diner.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Rory!" Lane shouted, and the two girls shared a 'moment' as they descended upon the diner.

"But… a prayer rally? Two days with Mrs. Kim?" Lorelai reasoned. "Did you remember to take your shots this month?"

"I just… don't want to be around when it comes out that… I did that to him," Rory sniffled, taking her arm out of her mother's and wrapping it around her waist self-consciously.

"Rory, you know that you can tell me anything, right?" Lorelai said, although it was obvious that the remark was pointed.

"I know," Rory replied, although her voice was barely above a whisper.

Lorelai looked at her daughter pointedly for a moment, but Rory wouldn't bend. This was the one thing in her life that she would not be able to say anything about. When Luke came over to refill their coffee, he saw the separation in the ranks immediately.

"Coffee?" he suggested, noticing that both of their cups were completely empty.

Both women nodded in complete unison, but neither said a word.

"Are you alright?" he asked in concern, but didn't get an answer as someone across the diner dropped their plate, shattering it on the ground.

"So," Rory started, but couldn't think of anything to say after it.

"You can go… But whatever stupid teenage thing you're doing tomorrow, that you think you can't tell me, I want you to know that I trust you. Be careful, okay babe?" Lorelai said after a sigh.

Rory felt her stomach flutter and her eyes slowly rose to her mother's. They shared another 'moment' before Lorelai turned to start shouting at Luke for their cheeseburgers, which still hadn't come.


	2. Find Your Way

**Disclaimer: A nice forewarning, there is quite a bit of stolenish stuff from Sadie, Sadie in this chapter. It's not mine, I paraphrased it mercilessly and stole it for my own fun times. **

"Rory, do you know where my earrings are?" Lorelai called from her room upstairs. Rory was in her own room, changing out of her uniform and into something dinner-worthy.

"Which ones?" Rory returned, looking in her jewelry box for any earrings that might belong to her mother.

"Uh… gold dangly ones?" Lorelai responded as she stumbled down the stairs, attempting to get her shoes on at the same time.

"Yup, I got 'em," Rory confirmed, taking out the pair and placing on a pair of her own. Her eyes strayed over to her closet for a moment, picking out all the school girl clothes. They were all pretty… but she didn't want to be pretty tomorrow. She wanted to look good, for Jess. Shaking her head, she attempted to clear her mind of him, if only for dinner.

"So, seeing as how you have to be awake early tomorrow, do you think we could make them let us go early?" Lorelai suggested with a giddy smile.

"Maybe," Rory mumbled, giving her mother her earrings and slipping on her shoes.

"Woah, wait up," Lorelai said as Rory attempted to open the door to leave. "Where did you get that dress?"

Rory was clad in a red dress that sloped dangerously low in the front and had a slanted cut from her hip down to her knees. It was something that Lorelai would have only worn to a very hot date, not something to be worn in front of her grandparents.

"Your closet?" Rory admitted, looking uncomfortable and guilty.

"Yeah, I guessed that much… but why?" Lorelai pressed.

"I don't know… I just, wanted to look pretty tonight," Rory said, pulling down the high hemline.

"Go change," Lorelai told her, pointing into the house.

"What?" Rory asked her in shock.

"You're not wearing that to my parent's house. They'll skin us alive," Lorelai explained, frowning in confusion as to why Rory would even wear the clothes in the first place.

"We're going to be late!" Rory whined as she ran back into the house, slipped out of the dress and pulled on a red sweater and a black skirt. At least they would go with the red scheme.

"Much better," Lorelai said, kissing her daughter's forehead and then ushering her out to the car.

"Can I borrow some of your clothes tomorrow?" Rory asked her timidly as they started driving.

"Why would you possibly need 'my' clothes to go to a prayer rally?" Lorelai pressed, even more confused.

"I want to make an impression," Rory reasoned nervously.

"An impression," Lorelai attempted to accept.

"Yup… a good impression," Rory repeated again.

"So… what happened with Dean today?" Lorelai inquired, dropping the subject before she got even more suspicious of her perfect daughter.

"Well… he came to Chilton and we talked… and I couldn't say it, so he left," Rory explained, upset again with the topic.

"It?" Lorelai muttered, already knowing the answer.

"I don't love him, I couldn't lie to him," Rory told her, leaning against the car door and watching the scenery pass.

"What happened? I mean, just yesterday you were telling me how much you wanted him back and how much you cared about him," Lorelai stated, gently trying to pull more information out of her daughter.

"I don't know what happened. I just… I saw him standing there, and I could have said it, I could have said: 'I love you!', but… it wouldn't have been true. I need to figure out what I want before I hurt both of us by saying… it, and then just breaking up with him later," Rory reminisced, leaning back in her seat and clutching the door harder.

"Are you going to be alright for dinner? I mean I could always call them and tell them you're sick," Lorelai suggested, even as they were parking.

"No, it's okay. It's not like anything's changed," Rory grumped, quickly getting out of the car and walking over to the door, where she rang the doorbell before her mother could join her.

"Hey!" Lorelai objected, not wanting to appear hesitant in the face of her mother.

Half-hobbling-half-sprinting, Lorelai managed to make it to the door as it was being opened by Emily herself. She was beaming and joyfully brought them into the house.

"Come in!" Emily boomed and dragged them into the mansion.

"Uh…?" Lorelai started, but didn't get to finish before Emily started shouting to Richard.

"Richard, they're here!" she called, which caused many strange looks between the younger Gilmore women.

"What's… going on?" Lorelai asked, trying to figure out what they'd done to acquire such a joyful greeting.

"Nothing, nothing, Richard!" Emily carried on, pouring Lorelai a white wine and handing it to her half-heartedly.

"Don't tell them before I get there!" Richard shouted back.

"Tell us what?" Rory whispered, trying not to appear intrusive. The strange actions from her grandparents were almost forcing tomorrow from her mind.

"Richard, get off that damn phone and get in here!" Emily yelled instead of answering.

"Alright, alright," Richard barked, then appeared in the doorway to the study. "Rory, I wanted to be the first to tell you that you're in the top three percent of your class!"

"Oh… I know, I mean we know," Rory told him, motioning between her mother and her.

"How?" Emily sulked, wilting a little bit in her seat.

"Well, we didn't know for sure… but I had a pretty good idea," Rory told her, blushing a little bit and sitting up tall.

"Congratulations, Rory!" Richard beamed, not at all disappointed that she'd known before hand, just excited that he'd gotten to talk to her anyway.

"Thanks," Rory replied quietly, attempting not to look too pleased.

"Rory, I was thinking, seeing as how this is such a special occasion, that we would have a special dinner next week," Emily gushed.

"But Grandma, all of our dinners are special," Rory cooed, and received a look from her mother.

"Suck up," Lorelai muttered under her breath.

"What was that, Lorelai?" Richard inquired, still excited with the situation.

"Nothing," she chirped, her back seeming to snap straight up.

"So, Rory, you can invite someone if you'd like," Emily suggested.

"S-someone?" Rory stammered, her mind instantly went to Jess.

"Yes, someone special, perhaps?" Emily pressed, her eyes seeming to suggest something.

"S-special?" Rory stuttered further, looking to her mother for saving.

"Mom, how's dinner coming?" Lorelai interrupted.

"Well, I don't know. Antonia!" Emily shouted into the kitchen.

"Dinner is ready, ma'am," Antonia replied, rushing out from the kitchen.

"You should have said so," Emily scolded, then stood up and ushered everyone into the kitchen.

A few hours later, Lorelai and Rory burst out of the manor, hugging and laughing.

"You said yes?" Rory reconfirmed for the millionth time.

Lorelai nodded in excitement as they stumbled into the car.

"When are you going to have the wedding?" Rory asked, and Lorelai seemed to deflate a little bit.

"I don't know! Oh my God, I don't have any idea. Rory, when am I getting married!?" Lorelai panicked.

"Mom, clam down. Do you want me to drive?" Rory asked, although she wasn't much better than her mother. The announcement of the engagement was only adding to the panic running through her bloodstream about her trip to New York to see Jess.

"No, I'm fine," Lorelai told her, taking a deep breath and starting the car. The conversation dwindled down to nothing as they started driving, Rory's words being stolen by her nervousness. Her hands were winding in her lap and her eyes were downcast.

"Mom… about tomorrow," Rory began, but she couldn't figure out how to continue.

"Yeah?" Lorelai asked, her pre-wedding bliss shattered for a few seconds at the possibility of her daughter's confession.

"I'm… not going to a prayer rally," Rory admitted, looking at her mother out of the corner of her eye.

"Uh huh," Lorelai allowed, waiting for her daughter to continue.

"I can't tell you where I'm going, but… I'm not going with Lane," Rory told her, begging her with her eyes not to ask any questions.

"So… what do you want me to do?" Lorelai flustered, not knowing how to react to being lied to, or having information knowingly held away from her, especially from her daughter. "We tell each other everything, Rory… why can't you tell me?"

"Because if I told you, you wouldn't let me go," Rory explained, upset that she was even saying this.

"And I'm supposed to what? Let you go to God-knows where to do God-knows what, just on faith?" Lorelai roared. Her disappointment and anger at being lied to finally arising.

"You trust me, don't you?" Rory asked, but her mother didn't answer. She felt tears stinging her eyes. "Don't you?"

"I don't know, you lied to me!" Lorelai objected, having troubles keeping her eyes on the road.

"I didn't want to. I was going to tell you, but Lane started, and I couldn't stop her without telling you, and I was panicking, because I know that you won't let me do this… but I really, really want to do this. I want to go tomorrow, and I want to go alone, but I knew that you wouldn't let me… and I know that you probably won't let me, but I'm going, mom. I'm going tomorrow," Rory finished, tears making it difficult to say some of the words.

Silence overtook the car ride for a good ten minutes, before Lorelai finally took a deep breath, settling her mind. "Where are you going, or can you not tell me that either?" Lorelai finally asked.

"New York… I'm going to New York," Rory told her, not wanting a huge gap between them.

"New York, you're going to New York, without me, or anyone else… to do what?" Lorelai begged, wringing her hands on the steering wheel and trying to push her tears away.

"I'm going to see the musical I was supposed to see today," Rory admitted, editing out the fact that Jess was going to be there.

"Supposed to see?" Lorelai clarified, the tears seeming to choke her vision more.

"Yeah, supposed to see," Rory confirmed, nodding and wrapping her arms around her waist.

"Why didn't you watch it?" Lorelai continued.

"Because I wasn't there," Rory followed, and figured that it was about as far as she could go.

"Why weren't you there?" Lorelai almost-snapped, feeling the pieces of the puzzles fitting together.

"I can't tell you," Rory stopped, and she could feel the chasm that this confession was going to cause.

"So… what's his name?" Lorelai asked, biting her lip in hesitation.

"What?" Rory squeaked.

"Well… you go to New York, you skip school, and now you're going to back to watch the same musical, and you're trying to tell me that there's not a boy involved?" Lorelai snapped, angry that her daughter would consider her that stupid.

"Yes… there's a boy," Rory finally agreed, humbling herself in her seat. She had had absolutely no intention to tell her mother about that part of today.

"So… you want me to let you go to New York to see a boy that you met today, who convinced you to skip school and… is this why you turned Dean down?" Lorelai realized, looking at Rory for a full ten seconds before realizing that she should probably be looking at the road.

"Mom!" Rory shouted, hurt that her mother would even suggest it.

"I can't believe this!" Lorelai exclaimed in frustration and turned into Stars Hollow. Silence took over the Jeep once more as they drove in. "Do you want to go to Luke's?"

"Coffee?" Rory whimpered.

"Coffee," Lorelai agreed, but the tension didn't drain.

Even as they walked into the diner, the tension crawled with them. When they sat down on opposite sides of the table and avoided each other's eyes, everyone in the diner watched them. Gilmore-watching was a hobby of the town, especially when there was the large possibility of gossip involved.

"Coffee?" Luke asked when he passed their table, already having two cups in his hand. Both women nodded, but neither looked up.

When the coffee was placed in front of them, neither moved to even touch it, instead they kept glancing at each other. When their eyes finally caught, they moved towards their coffee cups in unison and stopped, glaring at each other.

"You can't go," Lorelai finally said, breaking the silence.

"I'm going," Rory objected.

"No, I'm your mother, and I'm saying that you're not going," Lorelai snapped, putting her foot down.

"Do you really think you can stop me?" Rory growled, standing up and smashing her coffee back on the table, sloshing it everywhere.

"Yes, I think that I can! We're going home!" Lorelai shouted back, grabbing her arm and dragging her out of the diner.

"No, I'm not," Rory screamed, jerking her arm out of her mother's grasp and stepping back into the diner.

"Rory, get back here!" Lorelai returned, slamming into the diner again.

"No, I want to go, and I'm going to go and there's nothing you can do to stop me, because I'm going!" she shouted, running behind the counter.

"Hey, get out of there!" Luke attempted to interrupt, although he was in as much shock as the rest of the rest of the diner.

"Stay out of this!" Lorelai shrieked at him, and then looked back at her daughter. "Let's go home, now!"

"No, I'm not leaving until you say that I can go!" Rory shouted.

The ringing of someone's cell phone shattered the screaming match. Both Gilmores blinked as they realized it was Rory's. Cringing, she looked at the call-display. It was an unknown number. She looked from the phone to her mother, pained, and then took off for Luke's apartment.

"Where are you going!?" Luke objected when she passed through the curtain.

They chased her into his room, where Rory had already firmly locked herself in the bathroom. She opened the phone and pressed it to her ear. "Hello?" she called desperately, her tears almost swallowing the words.

"Hey," Jess responded. His voice caused the tears that she'd been holding to topple out again.

"Hi," she cried, wrapping her arm around her waist and sitting down on the bathtub.

"What's the matter?" he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"You know that I don't do things like… well, today all the time, right?" she responded.

"Uh… alright?" he allowed, waiting for her to make her point.

"In fact, I don't even know why I did it. I mean, I don't know anything about you and you live in another state, and I don't even know if I'm going to be able to see you and my mother… and my grandparents. I didn't think this through, I don't know what I'm doing," she said, stammering and tripping over words as she went.

"Wait… what are you trying to say?" he asked, just as slamming started on the bathroom door.

"I can't come tomorrow," she told him, and there was silence for a few seconds.

"Why not?" he demanded, he sounded hurt and angry.

"Because my mom won't let me," she explained, feeling the tears run down her face even harder.

"Okay," he said after a few seconds and the slamming on the door started again.

"Okay?" Rory asked, almost offended that he'd give up so easily.

"What else do you want me to say?" he snarled, and she felt the butterflies turn into stones in her stomach.

"I don't know. That maybe you'd come out here and do something? Or maybe you could come meet my mother, to show her that you're not all bad?" she suggested.

"Meet your mother?" he sighed on the opposite end of the phone. "I'm not the 'meet the parents' kind of guy."

"Well… what kind of guy are you?" Rory asked.

"Look, I'm running out of change, I was just calling to make sure that you were still coming. You're not, so I guess that this is goodbye, then?" Jess asked, he sounded very disappointed.

"Yeah… I guess so," she confirmed, nodding silently to herself.

"Bye, Rory," he said. His voice was even and cold.

"Bye, Jess," she returned, then snapped the phone shut and looked at the door, unable to find a word for the way that she felt.

Outside, in the apartment, Luke and Lorelai were both pacing around.

"What's going on?" Luke finally asked, breaking the silence.

"It's… she went to New York yesterday, and she met some guy, and now she wants to go back to see him tomorrow," Lorelai spilled after a minute. If there was anyone in town that she could trust, it was Luke.

"Some guy?" he stammered, not being able to believe that Rory would actually do something like that.

"Yeah, and I think that's probably him calling her!" she shouted, mostly at her daughter and pointed at the bathroom.

"I'm breaking the door down," he barked firmly, slamming his body against the wood.

"What?" she asked, watching Luke attempting to break through the door.

"She's not going to New York, with some punk kid," he told her, throwing himself against the door every third word.

"Luke, stop, she has to come out sooner or later, there's no other way to get out," she stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder to stem the slamming.

"You're being awful calm about this," he growled.

"No, I'm just… trying to stop someone from doing something stupid and then we'll all regret it, like you breaking down your door just to get someone off the phone," Lorelai sighed, motioning to the door again.

"Yeah, well, she shouldn't be on the phone with him, especially not in my diner," he objected, slamming his fist against the door again.

"Technically she's not in your diner," she taunted, unable to help herself.

"That doesn't matter, she's in the building, around me, which means that she shouldn't be talking on her cell phone," he continued, slamming against the door again.

"Luke, stop, please. She's going to come out, and then I can take her home, and we can talk," Lorelai consoled, almost regretting having told him.

"She's been in there for over five minutes. What is she doing?" he snapped, apparently not having heard her former comment.

"She's talking on the phone to some boy from New York," she stated the obvious, then stopped as the door opened.

Rory walked out, hiding the cell phone behind her back and glancing between them. She looked like she was in a trance. Slowly, she turned to her mother and drifted over to her, before realizing that she was supposed to be angry. Despite this, she started crying again, standing in the middle of the room, alone.

Lorelai and Luke looked at each other, concerned, before Lorelai stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her shaking daughter. Rory instantly clung to her and cried into her shoulder. Luke stood awkwardly in the background for a few seconds, before he looked at the damage that he'd caused to his door and flinched. Perhaps Lorelai was correct with the whole 'thinking' thing.

"Do you want to go home, baby?" Lorelai suggested, kissing her daughter's forehead.

Rory just nodded silently, looking at Luke out of the corner of her eye apologetically. Luke caught the look and gave her a small, nervous smile. He had no idea what was going on, outside of the fact that Rory was upset and that he would have to replace the door to his bathroom.

"Thanks for the coffee," Lorelai told him as she led her daughter out of the former-office, and then out of the diner.

On their walk to the Jeep, it seemed like all of Stars Hollow was watching them. The news of their screaming match had brought people far and near to the diner. They had created a tunnel of people to walk through. Lorelai shielded her daughter from their prying eyes and gently placed her inside their car, where she instantly seemed to wilt. Concern marring her every expression, Lorelai drove them both home. When they got into the driveway, they just paused for a minute.

Babette was sitting on her porch, waiting for them. When they arrived she made for them, but Lorelai shook her head. She got the message and returned to her side of the yard. Carefully, as not to upset her further, Lorelai gently prodded Rory out of the Jeep and into the house.

"Are you okay?" Lorelai asked.

"I don't know why I'm so upset, I mean… I didn't even really know him… at all," Rory attempted to explain, but she felt so weighed down. She felt more upset over this than what she ever had when she and Dean had broken up.

"Do you want to wallow?" Lorelai suggested and led them to the couch, where they proceeded to collapse.

"Over what? I didn't even go on a date with him," Rory objected in defeat and laid her head against her mother's shoulder.

"What happened in New York?" Lorelai finally asked, unable to contain the question any longer.

"I don't even know what to call it. Can I tell you tomorrow? I need to go to sleep," Rory whimpered, walking into her room and sitting down on her bed.

"But it was something special, or could have been?" Lorelai continued to prod, following her daughter into her room.

Rory nodded mutely, slipping under the covers of her bed without changing first. Lorelai sighed. She was frustrated with this strange boy who'd managed to break Rory's heart without even having it. Stealthily, she crawled up the stairs and into her own room, where she proceeded to lie in bed for hours without being able to sleep.

Downstairs, Rory was in much the same condition. She'd tossed and turned, but she wasn't able to get Jess out of her mind. The continuing wonder of how the hell he'd managed to get so close to her sped through her mind millions of times, but she couldn't account for it. The looks that they'd given each other, the playful banter, the books, and he was supposed to have taken her to that musical, now she was going to have to get Paris's notes. It wouldn't be the same, but she could probably still do the test with them.

Morning in the Gilmore household was next to silent. They sat at the table in the morning, nursing their coffee and giving each other looks, before Rory finally sighed and decided to break the silence.

"I met him at the musical… there was another school there with us. Paris took the last group seat, so I was alone. I talked to him for a few minutes before the show started, and at intermission he suggested we leave, because neither of us was watching the show anyway. I don't know why, it was crazy and stupid and… pathetic, but I agreed, and we went to Washington Square Park, and then… we went to his apartment," Rory caught the look of outrage on her mother's face, but she held up her hand to stop her from talking. "Don't say anything, because I'm only telling you this once. We went to his apartment, up to the roof. It had an amazing view, we could see all of Manhattan… and I almost fainted, but he caught me, and he held me… and I kissed him, and he kissed me, and then we had to get back to the theatre, but I kissed him… three times. Me, I kissed him, not him kissing me. I don't know why I did it… it just felt… right."

"You kissed him…" Lorelai repeated, sighing. "It felt right? Like… more than Dean, right?"

"It felt like I was supposed to be there. I've never felt anything like it," Rory admitted, shrugging a little bit and holding her coffee cup tighter.

"I'm sorry, Sweetie… do you have any way of contacting him? Maybe I could come out to New York-," Lorelai was about to suggest, but Rory just shook her head and looked away.

"He says he's not the 'meet the parents' kind of guy," Rory whispered, and pushed away from the table. "I'm going to go find Lane."

"I thought she had that prayer rally today?" Lorelai frowned, following Rory to the door.

"Yeah, but it doesn't actually start until one," Rory shrugged, slipping on a jacket and opening the door. Outside there was already a group of gawkers, waiting for news.

"Are you going to be okay?" Lorelai asked, eyeing the onlookers.

"I'll be fine," Rory told her, smiling weakly and walking out into the yard.

Instantly, people began following her around, not saying anything, not touching at all, just following. When she got to Kim's Antiques, Lane was sitting on the front porch, obviously waiting for her.

"Rory!" she squealed when she saw her, and rushed down the steps.

The mob kept their distance, staying behind the white picket fence, although this probably had more to do with Mama Kim's glare than respect for the conversation. Lane gave the group an evil eye and dragged her best friend into the house, up the stairs, and into her room. She then proceeded to the closet and locked them inside.

"What happened? You were supposed to go to New York, to see Jess and kiss and do girly things and… what's wrong?" Lane started off at a rant, but ended up concerned when Rory's face fell.

"He called me last night… after diner. I'd told my mother that I was going to New York, to see a guy, and she said no, so I told him that I couldn't go, and he didn't… well, he didn't even try," Rory sulked, leaning on her friend's shoulder.

"That jerk! What did you say his name was? I'm going to New York, and I'm going to kick his butt," Lane proclaimed, but both of them knew it was an empty threat.

"No, it's okay. I mean, it was only… a fling? My first fling, I guess. I'm never going to see him again, and I don't think he'll ever call me again. I only know his apartment number, and I'm not going to New York again any time soon," Rory sniffled, calming herself a bit with the realization.

"Are you sure, because I could always, y'know, hire someone?" Lane suggested weakly.

Rory smiled again and just leaned her head on her friend's shoulder again, effectively cutting the conversation off again. They sat in the closet, listening to music and thinking about their respective things; Lane about how much she wanted to murder the guy who did this, and Rory about how much she wished that things could have been different.

"I have to go," Rory said after almost an hour of non-talking.

"Where?" Lane asked, confused.

"To Doose's," Rory muttered, and Lane blinked at her.

"To do what?" she asked suspiciously, following her friend as she left the closet.

"To apologize to Dean," Rory said without thinking, and rushed down the stairs, outside, and through the crowd of people who were still milling about.

"Wait, you're not going to get back together, are you?" Lane asked, afraid that Rory was just going to use this as an excuse to be with someone else.

"I don't know… maybe, I just want him to know that I do still care about him," Rory muttered, pushing past the crowd and out towards Doose's.

Lane shouted a 'Be right back!' to her mother, and took off before she could be reprimanded. She caught Rory when they were just a few meters outside of the market, and attempted to hold her back.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Lane demanded, watching Dean stocking shelves inside.

"I'm sure," Rory said after a few seconds, and pushed her way inside.

On the other side of town, at the Inn, Lorelai was attempting to field off millions of phone calls involving what was going on the previous night, as well as take reservations and ignore Michel's taunting. Finally, after another call about the 'situation', she hung up the phone and slammed into the kitchen. Sookie was so shocked that she dropped a spatula onto her foot.

"Sookie, I need to talk," Lorelai whined.

"What's the matter?" Sookie asked, walking through the chaos to the back of the kitchen.

"It's Rory," Lorelai admitted, and Sookie stared at her, waiting for her to continue. "She met someone in New York yesterday."

"New York? Is he cute?" Sookie gushed, but stopped when she noticed her friend's expression. "Sorry, continue."

"They had a… fling and now Rory's all hung up on him," Lorelai continued to whine, not wanting to have to bear the news all by her lonesome.

"A fling?" Sookie asked, eyes wide and shocked.

"Not 'that' type of fling, just a kissing fling," Lorelai corrected quickly.

"A kissing fling; just a kissing fling," Sookie repeated, placing a hand to her chest as though to calm her beating heart.

"And I said yes," Lorelai added as an afterthought, and Sookie froze.

"Yes? You said yes? You're getting married!" she half-screeched, and then they proceeded to do the girlie squealing dance, hugging and bouncing.

"Uh huh," Lorelai said with a nod, and more hugging ensued.

"Max is a great man," Sookie approved, and then her expression clouded over. "But Rory had a fling?"

"It's so weird. She's not… me, she's not supposed to have flings!" Lorelai objected, leaning against one of the counters absently.

"She's turning into a little lady!" Sookie cried happily.

"But I don't want her to!" Lorelai whined.

"Hey, Sookie, I brought some sprouts," Jackson announced as he entered into the kitchen, then saw Lorelai. "Oh, and Lorelai, the Rory-mob is trying to destroy Doose's."

"Doose's?" Lorelai asked, before registering Dean.

"Yeah… I saw them on the drive over," Jackson supplied.

"Sookie, I have to go make sure that my little lady isn't doing something stupid," Lorelai grumped, then hugged her friend and dashed from the kitchen. A shouted 'goodbye' at Michel, while he was on the phone, was all she supplied as she dashed out.

Lane was hovering outside Doose's market uneasily. Rory was just inside the doorway, watching Dean. He hadn't noticed her or the Rory-mob yet. Just as Patty was dashing over to the scene, Lane decided that it would be easier to act as conscience to Rory than to attempt to explain to Patty, and the mob, what the screaming match at Luke's the previous night had been about.

"Rory," she whispered, inching over to where her friend was standing.

"Mhm?" Rory replied absently. She was obviously distracted and nervous at the aspect of confronting Dean again.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Lane pried, her voice still a whisper.

"Nope," Rory said, moving towards Dean.

"Do you know what you're going to say?" Lane asked, her voice a shrill whisper.

"Nope," Rory stated again, and tapped Dean's shoulder. He turned around with a pleasant expression, but once he saw it was her, it faded into coldness.

"What do you want?" he grumbled, turning back to his work.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry, and that I still care for you, a lot, and that I still want to be friends," she told him, not touching him again but lingering at the edge of his vision as he moved around the store in an attempt to get rid of her.

"I don't want to 'just be friends', Rory, I love you," he snapped at her, quietly, so that the pack outside wouldn't be able to hear it.

"I know, and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but… I don't know if I love you or not," she replied, chasing him as he walked around faster.

"How can you not know? You either love someone, or you don't!" he shouted, and the people outside bustled about.

"It's not that simple," Rory screamed back, startling everyone in the room.

"How is it not that simple?" Dean finally asked, storming over to her and towering over her. In all her time of dating him, she'd never noticed precisely how tall he was. He'd never used that height to scare her before, but he was scaring her now. Nervously, she backed up, but tripped over a stand. Lane caught her before she hit the ground and helped her to her feet. Dean stumbled forward to try to help her, but she pushed him away, tears springing to her eyes.

She looked outside at the crowd, at her mother who was standing there, glaring at Dean, then to the faces of all the people that she knew. After a few more seconds of contemplation of how she could explain what she was feeling, she looked back up at him again.

"It just… isn't," she finally supplied, and was then led out by Lane, into the capable hands of her mother and the townspeople.

"What a jerk!" Lane cried as they left the market. "I mean, you were only trying to talk to him, but he couldn't even 'speak' to you without you proclaiming your undying love. That creep."

Rory smiled at her, attempting not to get too upset with the situation.

"I never liked that boy, Rory. You were smart to have stayed away from him," she heard from someone, as well as hundreds of other comments of the same nature. She brushed them off and allowed herself to be taken to Luke's.

"Why did you do that?" Lorelai asked sadly.

"I don't want him to be angry at me," Rory shrugged, sitting down at a table.

"I have to go," Lane said suddenly as her mother appeared in the group of gawkers. Lorelai and Rory watched as she attempted to wade through without attracting attention to herself, but her mother saw her anyway, and dragged her home.

"Poor Lane," Rory muttered, and sulked some more.

"Luke! Coffee!" Lorelai shouted, and Luke was there in seconds with two cups.

"What's going on out there?" he asked, nodding towards the crowd.

"Rory tried to talk to Dean," Lorelai told him, and he seemed to stiffen. Despite the truth about the breakup being revealed, Luke still didn't like the boy who'd broken Rory's heart.

"Yeah, and what did he do?" Luke growled, glaring over at Doose's as though his eyes could burn it to the ground.

"Nothing, he did nothing," Rory snapped, and took a sip of her coffee.

Luke and Lorelai shared a moment before he rushed off to help the other customers. This left the two Gilmore girls alone, once more.

"An apology isn't going to solve this, Sweetie. He still loves you, and he probably thinks that you're playing with him," Lorelai started.

"I know," Rory muttered miserably, taking another large gulp out of her cup. "But I don't want him to be angry at me, I don't want to have to avoid Doose's Market anymore… I just… want things to go back to the way they were before Dean."

"And they will, sooner or later. You'll meet someone else, and it'll be even more special. You're still young, there is life after Dean," Lorelai consoled, grabbing her daughter's hand and squeezing it lightly.

"Yeah, but when will it arrive?" Rory whined, and they shared a smile. The tension seemed to break, and she could feel her shoulders loosening. She'd been so worried about the whole Jess-situation, and then with Dean… but sharing it with her mother just… made it all better. She knew that she could tell her anything, but there was something about Jess that made her want to keep him all to herself, even if it was just his name.

"So, movie night?" Lorelai asked on the trek home. Rory nodded, and they stemmed off towards the stores.

"I'll pick the movie," Rory said brightly, noticing that Dean was still working.

"I'll take Doose's," Lorelai agreed with an understanding nod.

Rory wandered into the store and looked around. After a few minutes, she finally found Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Her mind felt like mush, and Oompa Loompas were just the thing for mush-brains. Buying the movie only took a few seconds, which then left her standing awkwardly outside of Doose's as her mother bought all the junk food.

Dean seemed to be on the opposite side of the store from Lorelai at all occasions. Sighing, Rory wished that she could just end this all. It occurred to her that she could leave for the rest of summer, it would most definitely take care of the whole 'avoiding Dean' thing. Before she could talk herself into doing anything rash, like calling some sort of camp and asking if she could help, or going inside to shout at Dean some more, her mother came out.

"What did you get?" Lorelai asked, juggling with the food to see the title of the movie. "Ooo! Oompa Loompas!"

Rory smiled and took some of the junk food. Their walk home was silent again, both of them left to their thoughts. When they got home, they each looked at each other for a moment, and the infamous Gilmore girl looks seemed to portray their thoughts to each other. They smiled and opened the door, getting ready for some serious vegetation.

"You put on the movie!" Lorelai shouted as they rushed in. She placed all the junk on the coffee table in the center of the room and they sat on the couch, eyes glued to the screen.

"So… when do you want to have the wedding?" Rory asked, wanting to take the spotlight off of her. This entire day seemed to be all about her, nothing about her mother, who was actually getting married.

"I don't really know yet," Lorelai mumbled through a mouth filled with assorted candies.

"Do you know what kind of dress you want?" Rory prodded further.

"I haven't decided that yet either. Who are you bringing to dinner next week?" Lorelai deflected.

"No one, I guess," Rory stated with a shrug, and they dissolved into silence, eating the junk food and giving each other looks out of the corner of their eyes.

"This is weird," Lorelai finally revealed after a few minutes.

"Yup," Rory agreed, and they sat back in the couch.

"I still need to work the details out with Max," Lorelai finally stated after a few seconds.

"Makes sense," Rory stated with a nod.

"Ooo! There they are!" Lorelai cried when the Oompa Loompas arrived, and they curled into each other, watching the movie with only the occasional interjection of mocking.

A week later, they were standing on the Gilmore Mansion's steps again, cringing at the idea of going into the large house. Sure, today was supposed to be the 'party', but Rory hadn't brought a friend, and Lorelai now had a wedding band on her finger.

"You have to tell them tonight," Rory told her mother stubbornly. They'd been having this conversation all week, but now was the moment of truth.

"I'll tell them when I want to," Lorelai snapped back, angry that Rory was pushing so hard on this.

"If you don't tell them tonight, I will," Rory pointed out, then rang the bell. The door was opened seconds later by Emily herself.

"The maid busy?" Lorelai asked.

"No, I just wanted to meet you myself," Emily gushed, and brought them into the house. "So, how are you doing Rory?"

"I'm alright, good, actually," Rory stated, and then glared at Lorelai, who shushed her behind her mother's back.

"That's good," Emily said with a nod and led them into the study. "Richard, the girls are here!"

"I'll be there in a minute," Richard called back.

"Are you on the phone again?" Emily demanded angrily.

"No, I'm just getting Rory her book," Richard told her as he stepped into the room and handed Rory a book that they had been discussing in the previous weeks. "Congratulations."

"Thanks, Grandpa!" Rory exclaimed, looking the book over. "This is so amazing!"

"Would you like soda or water, Rory?" Emily interjected.

"I'll take soda, please," Rory responded politely.

"And I'll take a martini, shaken, not stirred," Lorelai cracked, and Rory coughed into her hand, holding back the laughter. Emily and Richard didn't appear to have gotten the joke.

"One soda," Emily said cheerfully, handing Roy her drink, and then brought over Lorelai's martini. "And one martini."

"Was it shaken?" Lorelai asked childishly, drinking the martini.

"No, it wasn't," Emily grumbled then ushered them all into the dining room.

"So, Rory, we have another little gift for you," Richard stated as they moved into the dining room.

"Yes, it's right here," Emily continued, picking up a little box and handing it to Rory.

"Thanks," Rory said, opening the box and giving her mother a 'look'.

"Pens!" Lorelai exclaimed upon the opening of the box. "All yours!"

"Actually, grandma, grandpa, mom and I have something that we need to tell you," Rory began, and Lorelai placed her cup down on the table, hard.

"Oh?" Emily inquired, looking between the younger Gilmores, who were glaring daggers at each other.

"Well, what is it?" Richard asked, not noticing the tension.

"Mom's-," Rory began, but was abruptly cut off.

"I'm getting married," Lorelai finally grumbled out.

"What?" Emily deadpanned, also slamming her drink on the table.

"Married?" Richard asked, aghast at the very idea.

"Good girl," Rory muttered into her drink and started on her salad. Lorelai sighed and glared at her daughter before looking at her mother with a blinding smile.

"Yup, married," she confirmed.

"How long have you known about this?" Emily snapped, figuring that she was probably the last person to know, as always.

"I just said yes last week. Are you angry at me?" Lorelai returned, glaring at her mother.

"No, not at all," Richard stated quickly, attempting to break the growing tension, that he was noticing for once.

"Who are you marrying?" Emily continued, ignoring Richard.

"Emily, please. Allow her to tell us without an interrogation," Richard pleaded, and this time Emily seemed to hear him.

"Fine," she grumbled, and stared at Lorelai for said information.

"His name is Max Medina," Lorelai told them, nervous for the first time in a long time. "He's a teacher at Rory's school."

"You're marrying a teacher at Chilton?" Emily exclaimed.

"Are you sure that's wise, Lorelai?" Richard commented.

"I'm fine with it," Rory interjected peacefully.

"When is the wedding?" Emily said, getting the conversation back on topic again.

"I don't know yet, I just said yes last week," Lorelai reminded them.

"Well, who's arranging it?" Emily prodded further.

"Uh… me, us?" Lorelai stated, pointing to her and Rory.

"Great, then I'll have my wedding planners on it in the morning!" Emily gushed, suddenly happy about the situation.

"Woah, wait, wedding planners?" Lorelai asked in shock.

An hour later, Lorelai stumbled out of her mother's house with information for ten different wedding planners, none of which she wanted.

"See! Now you have information," Rory taunted.

"Remind me of that when she takes over the world," Lorelai grumbled, shoving the papers into the back of the Jeep and running around to start the car before her mother could give her any more information.

"Whiner," Rory scolded, and sulked happily in her seat.

The car ride back to their house was filled with playful banter, but halfway through, Rory's cell phone rang. She hesitated and picked it up. For the past few days, someone had been calling, but not leaving messages. Checking the caller ID, she was pretty sure that she knew who it was.

"Aren't you going to answer that?" Lorelai asked, after Rory had been staring at it for a few seconds.

"Oh, right," Rory chirped, then opened it and placed it to her ear. "Hello?" Almost instantly, the sounds of the city behind the phone call died and a dial tone replaced it. Hesitating, she closed the phone and looked back at her mother with a tight smile. "Wrong number."

"That's been happening a lot lately," Lorelai speculated innocently.

"Yup," Rory agreed, curling into her seat.

"What?" Lorelai asked, noticing the strange influence that this phone call was having.

"Huh?" Rory replied, attempting to force herself into the here-and-now.

"Are you okay?" Lorelai pressed.

"I'm fine. It's just been a weird week, with… New York, and Dean…" Rory explained.

"New York, huh? You never did tell me his name," Lorelai pointed out, looking sideways at her daughter.

"I know," Rory shrugged off, and Lorelai decided to let it go. After all, it wasn't as though Rory knew all of her love life's details.

"Do you want to stop off at Luke's for coffee?" Lorelai suggested bouncily.

"Sure, why don't we go home, drop of the car, we'll change, and then we can walk?" Rory suggested. The sudden need to walk urging her on.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay? You're not pod-Rory, are you?" Lorelai asked, stunned that her daughter would actually 'suggest' physical activity.

"Nope, I'm Rory-Rory, I just need some air, and I think it'll do us good. We can talk… and… talk," Rory defended.

"We're talking now," Lorelai declared.

"Yeah… but the car motor is loud and I have a headache… and can we just walk?" Rory pouted.

"Fine… mean," Lorelai whined.

By the time they had gotten home, they were already onto arguing about what the next movie for movie-night was going to be. The mad dash through the house to get into more casual clothes lasted a grand total of three minutes, before they started down to Luke's. When they arrived, it was nine fifteen, and the diner was closed. Luke, however, was still sitting behind the counter.

"Lukey! Oh Lukey!" Lorelai taunted, tapping on the class and pouting. "We want coffee!"

"We're closed," Luke objected, even as he walked over to the door and opened it. "Bad night?"

"Nah, my mom just piled some wedding planning stuff on me," Lorelai told him, and then stopped in her tracks.

"Wedding stuff, huh?" Luke asked, going behind the counter and getting coffee ready.

"Uh, yeah… I'm engaged, isn't that neat?" Lorelai told him weakly.

"You didn't tell him yet?" Rory hissed, kicking her mother.

"Ow!" Lorelai objected as they sat at the counter.

"To Max?" Luke asked, still not looking at her. He was now working on refilling salt containers.

"Yup," Lorelai squeaked, even as she was kicked again.

"I figured," Luke brushed off, then turned around and gave them some doughnuts that were left over.

"You did?" Lorelai deadpanned, not expecting that reaction.

"Yeah," he said, continuing to act as though it was nothing. Rory kicked her mother harder beneath the counter.

"Ow!" Lorelai objected again.

"Could we get our coffee to go?" Rory asked, munching on her doughnut.

"Sure," Luke agreed as he poured it into two to-go cups.

"Thanks!" Rory chirped, then grabbed her mother's arm and dragged her out of the diner. "How could you not have told him!?"

"I don't know, I just… didn't get around to it," Lorelai mumbled guiltily, drinking her scalding hot coffee quickly.

"You're evil! You know that he has a thing for you," Rory declared on their trip home, just as her phone rang again.

"Another wrong number?" Lorelai suggested, trying to see the caller ID.

"One minute," she said to her mother, and stepped back towards Luke and into an alley, where she would get some privacy. When there, she flipped the phone open and pressed it to her ear.

"Look, if you're going to call me, then say something. Apologize, curse me, but do something!" Rory harped, but was surprised when someone gasped on the other end. She pulled the phone away from her eat and looked at the caller ID, then cringed. "Oh… Hi Paris."

"Who are you yelling at?" the abrasive teen asked, obviously put out about being yelled at.

"I thought that you were… someone else," Rory admitted.

"Oh, well, I'm not. I thought that you and I could start some work on the Franklin this summer. I'm going to come over to your house tomorrow and bring you some of the ideas I have," Paris told her.

"Wait, it's the beginning of summer. Don't we have to actually wait until school starts to be working on school stuff?" Rory sighed, knowing the answer she would get.

"Why wait? Don't tell me that you're slacking on me already," Paris taunted.

"No, no, I'm not slacking. When are you coming?" Rory grumped.

"Is around one okay?" Paris asked, and Rory was taken aback at the fact that she wasn't just ordered to be there.

"Yup, one's fine. Meet me at my house and we can go to lunch, and could you bring the theatre stuff too?" Rory invited, not quite sure where it was coming from.

"Oh… okay," Paris agreed hesitantly, not used to being asked to many things.

"Bye Paris," Rory finished, flipping the phone shut and going back out to join her mother.

"Who was that?" Lorelai asked as they began walking again.

"Paris," Rory answered, still stunned that the girl she'd had such a hateful relationship over the past year was talking to her again. Maybe it was a good thing, hopefully.

"Paris?" Lorelai repeated, just as stunned.

"Uh huh," Rory agreed as they started walking again.

"What did she want?" Lorelai almost cringed to ask.

"She's coming out tomorrow for lunch and we're going to be going over some ideas for the Franklin," Rory told her.

"Wow… Did you see any pigs with wings today?" Lorelai responded.

"What do you mean?" Rory asked.

"I mean that she hates you, or did hate, you. And now all of a sudden you two are pals?" Lorelai explained.

"I don't know. Don't ask me to explain Paris," Rory said with a cheerful shrug. They then continued to walk home, debating whether or not Paris was, in fact, Satan in disguise. 

**A/N: Yes... the dinners were a bit messed up. In my version, Lorelai doesn't talk to Luke before she says yes. Also, she tells her parents before Sookie can invite them to the Wedding Shower. I do have my motives in this, btw... the next chapter will be skipping to the end of summer/beginning of school. I'm sorry for the lack of Jess, but... he didn't quite fit in yet.**


	3. Drove For Miles

"Rory and I have been sorting through ideas over the summer, and we've already narrowed it down to who gets what projects. My view of this news paper is that it should be good, the best, better than the New York Times! As Rory said, 'The paper could be great this year,' but in order for the t to happen, I need everyone to put their absolute best into the paper, and that means that there is to be no slacking, no turning in things late, no spelling errors and no gossip," Paris ranted, giving a particularly nasty glance to Madeline and Louise, who were paying absolutely no attention.

"Do you have the assignments, Miss Gellar?" their supervisor asked curiously, gazing at Paris, who was towering over the group, and Rory, who was sitting next to her peacefully.

"Yes," Paris barked, and held out a hand. Rory obediently placed the papers in her hand, making sure to keep her eyes down, so that she wouldn't laugh at Paris's speech.

"You two are very organized," the teacher complimented, taking a look at the outline of assignments in awe. It had Paris's direct attitude with Rory's organizational skills.

"Thank you. Well, I believe that that sums it up," Paris announced, and the teacher gaped at her, not used to the meetings being so short. "You're dismissed."

Rory stood up smiling softly to herself, and headed towards the doors to finish her article… on concrete, which she'd been given because Paris hadn't trusted anyone else to put any sort of interesting spin on it. They'd already discussed the articles to pieces, figuring out who would have what tasks. They'd created a hierarchy based on what they knew, and were going to adjust based on the quality of the articles that were handed in.

"Rory, wait a minute," Paris called after her, and she turned as she was just about to leave. It had been a busy summer with Paris. They'd already read through three textbooks, analyzing and taking notes, while discussing the Franklin to pieces, and Paris was even hinting something about student parliament.

"Could we have another study session this weekend?" Paris asked, but her eyes were darting around the room as though she was nervous. It was strange to see the normally-confident girl jittering like she was.

"School just started," Rory pointed out, not wanting to also point out that she was tired of studying.

"I know… but," Paris stammered, and Rory frowned at her.

"If you want to come over to hang out, you can just say it," Rory suggested, smiling slightly at the spark in Paris's eyes when she mentioned it.

"Well… uh," Paris continued to stutter.

"Would you like to come over to hang out at my house on Saturday?" Rory asked after a few more nervous Paris-glances.

"Sure," Paris said, and her nervous glances ceased into thankfulness. "I'll see you around one?"

"Yup," Rory chirped, and left again, to her locker. Outside her locker, Tristin was waiting, yet again.

"Hey Mary," he greeted with a small, cocky grin.

"Go away," she sighed and opened her locker. She shoved her books into her backpack and ignored him.

"Look, I don't understand why you're giving me the cold shoulder. I mean… you kissed me, I kissed you, and it's not like you have a boyfriend," he poked, and she stopped in her tracks.

"Get away from me," she hissed, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"No," he told her evenly. "You're stuck with me until you can give me an honest reason why we can't date."

"I don't like you, I don't care about you, and I don't want to have anything to do with you! Do you want me to go on?" she shrieked.

"Chill, Mary," Tristin smirked, and left down the hallway.

"He's still doing that?" Paris asked from behind her, and she jumped.

"God! Don't do that!" she scolded.

"Sorry," Paris muttered, but it was obvious that her mind was on something different.

"Why don't you just… tell him?" Rory suggested, now watching the retreating blonde herself.

"There's nothing to tell," Paris snapped, looking down at Rory's books with a frown. "Do you want a ride home?"

"Are you sure?" Rory asked, zipping up her bag and rising to her full height.

"My parents are fighting again…" Paris trailed off with a sigh.

"Sure," Rory agreed before Paris could start lingering on her sad family life.

"Let's go, then?" Paris stated before turning on her heel and walking out of the school. Rory, used to this strange abrupt turning, followed her swiftly and silently.

"How are you dealing with Mr. Medina?" Paris asked quietly as they slipped into the car.

"My mother left him at the alter… so… kinda weird," Rory answered with a shrug. In the past two months, she and Paris had become very close, especially with Lane being gone.

"He won last year's favorite teacher award, you know," Paris informed her, and Rory felt there was something else that she wasn't getting.

"Uh huh," she agreed, waiting for Paris to continue.

"I was thinking about what article to give you, but all I can think of is the teacher of the year interview… but I don't want to make things more awkward between you, because I can't imagine what it would be like-," Paris rambled, and Rory gaped for a second.

"You're rambling!" she exclaimed.

"No I'm not," Paris denied, keeping her eyes firmly on the road.

"Yes you were but… Mr. Medina?" Rory's excited deflated at the idea of the interview.

"Yeah," Paris nodded, looking at her friend out of the corner of her eye.

"Sure," Rory said after a few seconds. "I guess that I need to talk to him some time."

"So, you'll do it?" Paris asked. She seemed nervous but excited.

"Yup," Rory agreed, but only felt nervous at the very idea.

By the time they reached Stars Hollow, they were back to arguing about what they should do on Saturday. Rory was attempting to argue for a movie night, Willy Wonka, to be specific. Paris was arguing that they should go through the physics textbook for next year, as they'd already gone through the junior's.

"But it's practical. Watching… Noopa Gloopas, isn't!" Paris argued.

"Oompa Loompas, and that's half the fun of it! Come on, just… cut back, have some fun. We've been studying all summer," Rory objected.

Paris swung to a stop in front of Luke's and their argument carried into the diner.

"I told you already, fun is for 'after' Harvard," Paris countered and opened the door. The jingling announced their presence to the room, and Lorelai turned to face her from the counter.

"Hey Rory, Paris," Lorelai greeted with a wave, not at all surprised to see the blonde-whirlwind.

"Hey mom," Rory returned with a small wave.

"Hello, Miss Gilmore," Paris said formally with a nod.

"Paris, it's Lorelai," Lorelai corrected for the millionth time that summer.

"Right…" Paris remembered with a frown.

"Coffee?" Rory begged, and threw herself onto the counter.

"Coming right up… Paris?" Luke replied, and then saw the other girl. "Do you want something?"

"No, I'm fine, thank you. I have to be getting back to Hartford. See you tomorrow, Rory," Paris said with a tight smile and walked swiftly out of the diner.

"How can you stand that girl?" Lorelai asked, her jaw dropped, as Paris fumed out.

"She's alright, if you get to know her better," Rory appeased with a shrug.

"So… Rory, I wanted to ask you if you'd be able to show my nephew around town," Luke poked in sheepishly.

"Nephew?" Rory asked, looking between her mother and the diner owner.

"Yup," Lorelai confirmed with a nod.

"Yeah, he's just in from New York, and he doesn't know anyone. I figured that he might respond better to someone his own age…" Luke trailed off awkwardly.

"What do you mean?" Rory inquired, not understanding why he wouldn't respond to someone.

"He's not exactly talkative," Lorelai interjected, and Luke sighed.

"Yeah, he's new, he doesn't know anyone," Luke continued blearily.

"Sure, I'll show him around," Rory agreed with a smile. "Is he here now?"

"I don't know," Luke answered, and walked to the stairs. He pulled back the curtains and looked up. "Jess!?" After a few seconds of not answering, Luke shrugged and walked back to the counter.

"He slipped out? How could he have slipped out? We were sitting right here," Lorelai gasped, looking around as if searching for a ghost.

"I don't know," Luke sighed dejectedly.

"I invited him for dinner tomorrow, though, so you can meet him then," Lorelai said brightly.

"Sure," Rory chirped, smiling and sipping her freshly-poured coffee.

Precisely a day later, Rory sat in her room pouring over her notes for her interview with Mr. Medina. She had called him to set it up, instead of actually talking to him. Deciding when to set it up had been the hardest part. Currently she was sitting in front of her computer pouring over all the articles Paris had given her to look over.

"Milady?" Lorelai called and knocked on her door.

"Come in," Rory grumped.

"Hey, are you joining the festivities?" Lorelai said with a large grin.

"In a sec," Rory managed with a bit more cheer.

"You sound crabby," her mother commented, and she turned around to face her.

"No, just concentrating," she attempted to excuse herself, and her mother frowned a little bit.

"Don't concentrate too hard, men like 'em dumb, right Jackson?" Lorelai cracked.

"If you can navigate yourself around a tree, keep walking," Jackson returned, and then she tuned it out.

She heard the knock on the door absently, and then people walking around outside her room. She was halfway through an article before she blinked, looking at her words on the screen. The last thing that she'd written was the name 'Jess'. Shock poured through her for a moment as she tried to figure out where it was coming from.

"Do you eat cheese?" she heard from behind her, and frowned. Slowly, she looked over her shoulder, hearing talk of fruit.

"Rory, they're here!" her mother finally addressed her, and when she completed her turn, she found herself face to face with her summer 'fling'.

Time froze for a minute and they both looked at each other with different emotions running through them. Rory felt shock, confusion and anger. He looked blank, but she seriously doubted that she could be feeling this way without him feeling some sort of… something. As he stepped into the room, she rose up from the chair, everything moving too quickly for her to register it.

"Hey," she whispered, blinking a lot as though to shock herself out of the dream she'd found herself in.

Two weeks ago, he'd stopped calling. The annoying phone calls that she'd come to expect had come to a blazing stop. She'd even debated going to New York to see him. Now he was standing two feet in front of her, and she couldn't place together a coherent thought.

"Hey," he greeted in return, and a small smirk graced his features. She felt a thrill of heat when she saw it and her breathing picked up.

"What are you… how did… why?" she started again and again, but couldn't manage to string together more than two words.

"It doesn't matter. So… that's your mom. I take it that Luke was the door-guy?" Jess asked humourlessly.

"Door guy?" Rory blinked, unable to comprehend.

"Last time we talked, someone was hitting the door? I saw the bathroom," he offered with a shrug and looked at her books. His hands hovered over one of them and he pulled it out.

"Oh," Rory answered with a frown.

"Are you your mother's daughter?" Jess asked with a small smile.

"Huh?" Rory continued, unable to shake the cloud around her brain.

"She never shuts up," he commented and shrugged, throwing the book back on the table.

"Right, uh, well, normally people who I've, y'know, kissed in New York don't randomly show up as my friends' nephews," she rambled, following him as he walked towards a window.

When he was just about to reach for it, Lorelai appeared at the door and Rory jumped in front of him to block what he was doing. Why was she defending him? Cringing, she attempted to keep a smile on her face.

"We have to get Jackson away from the lemons, so we're moving the feast into the living room," Lorelai chirped, and Rory nodded anxiously, wanting to get her out of the room.

"Is everything okay?" Lorelai continued, watching them carefully and frowning. The rest of the party was past her, but she lingered, not understanding the tension that she was feeling in the room.

"Yup, fine, totally okay. Right, Jess?" Rory asked, nudging him hard with her elbow.

"Jeez, yeah, it's fine," he replied, giving her an evil glance.

"Okay" Lorelai accepted, drawing out the word and walking into the living room.

"Do you want to bail?" Jess piped up when she'd gone.

"What?" Rory asked incredulously and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Bail," he repeated, nodding toward the window.

"Umm, no, it's Stars Hollow on a Tuesday night, there's no where to bail to," she rambled, unable to help herself.

"Look, I need to talk to you, and it's not happening in this house. So either you come with me now, or we can do it somewhere more public," he warned her.

"I need to tell my mom," she replied bitterly and moved towards the kitchen. Jess caught her arm and she felt the same fire that she had in New York. She tried to jump away from him, but he held strong.

"Call her when we've left," he stated, and pulled her out the window. Rory squeaked a little bit, but couldn't help but feel that same sense of excitement that she had when she'd first taken off with him.

When they'd reached town square, she pulled out her phone and called home. There had yet to be any talking, but she hadn't really expected him to be Mr. Open about what had happened in the first place.

The phone rang for a few seconds before Lorelai picked up, sounding panicked. "Rory, is that you?"

"Yeah, mom, it's me," Rory replied, wrapping an arm around her waist and continuing to walk beside Jess silently. He seemed to have somewhere in mind for this chat, and she unconsciously wondered how much of the town he'd already explored.

"Thank God, where the hell are you? Are you with Jess?" Lorelai pressed.

"I'm just walking around with him, mom. I need to talk to him for a bit. I'll tell you when I get home, okay?" Rory suggested awkwardly, and then stopped when she realized that they'd reached their destination.

"No, not okay. Where are you, I'm coming to get you," Lorelai stated, and she heard grumbling in the talking behind her mother's voice.

"No, stay home, eat. We'll be home an hour. Bye mom," Rory finished and closed the phone before her mother could interject anymore.

"She worried?" Jess asked absently, taking her hand lightly and pulling her down to sit on the bridge with him.

"Well, her only daughter did just run off with a complete stranger, who also happens to be a jerk," she supplied with a sickly-sweet grin.

"Hey, I resent that. I'm sure I've still got some good left in me," he said with another smirk, and she couldn't help but let the forced grin slip into something a bit more real. After realizing that she'd been holding his hand the entire time, she shoved it away and placed her hands in her lap.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded angrily.

"I got into a bit of trouble last week… So Liz sent me here," he shrugged, looking into the water.

"Trouble… Liz?" Rory prodded, having more questions than answers with his answer. "Is that why you stopped calling me?"

"Yes, trouble, and Liz is my mother. I stopped calling you because I figured that I'd never see you again," he answered with a shrug.

"But that didn't keep you from calling all summer," she pointed out with a glare.

"I came to Hartford a couple of times… but I couldn't figure out which bus went to Stars Hollow," he admitted guiltily.

"What?" Rory asked, sitting up a bit straighter.

"Look, I'm sorry I was such a dick. I've had a lot of issues this past year… my mom got married, again, last month, and this guy's a real 'winner'," he told her honestly, leaning forward a little bit.

"What do you mean? Is he the 'trouble'?" Rory prodded, not believing that she was actually buying this. He'd left her hanging in the dust, and now she was just eating this all up like it was gospel. Smart, Gilmore… smart.

"Sort of… he hit me, so I hit him back. He went down, and mom told me to fuck off, so I was left with the choice of either living on the streets or coming to live with my uncle. I didn't know that he lived here, or I wouldn't have come, but now I'm here and…" he trailed off, waiting for her to fill in the gap.

"And you're here, that's great," she replied sarcastically, not believing that he was even asking her this.

"I didn't mean to hurt you. I was having a bad day, I tried to apologize, but I couldn't figure out what to say," he told her, looking away from her for a moment.

"So you're here to stay?" Rory asked, the situation finally dawning on her.

"If there's something for me here, then yeah," he said, his eyes slowly trailing back over to her.

"What kind of something?" she asked curiously, leaning forward a little bit unconsciously.

"Who knows with these small towns, you can never tell what kind of wonders they hold," he muttered, the words dripping in sarcasm, but she didn't care.

"So… not a fling?" she asked him hopefully, her eyes wide and questioning.

"Fling?" he returned, not sure what she was talking about, but leaning closer to her anyway. They were barely an inch apart now.

"Nothing," she replied with a small smile and closed the distance. The kiss was soft, questioning. They were testing to make sure that it wasn't a one time thing.

After less than a second, however, both felt the electricity and sought to deepen it. Rory wrapped her arms around his back, threading her fingers into his heavily-gelled hair and splitting apart the strands, ruining the style.

"Hey," he scolded half-heartedly and kissed her again.

"Rory!" someone shouted, and the two of them leapt apart. She tripped and grabbed the nearest thing to her, Jess's sleeve. They both toppled and landed in the water.

"Rory!" another voice shouted, and the dinner party rushed over to them, helping them out of the water.

"What are you doing out here?" Lorelai half-screamed. She took off her jacket and threw it around her daughter's shoulders.

"Talking, I told you, we were talking!" Rory returned guiltily.

"Talking, huh? Come on, let's go," Luke growled, grabbing Jess's shoulder and shoving him towards the diner.

"Hey," Jess snarled, pushing him off and walking on his own. The entire party watched them as they walked, angrily, back towards their apartment. The body movements, the shoulders, even their shapes resembled each other's.

"Wow," Lorelai commented, more to herself than to the others.

"You must be freezing, come on," Sookie finally said, breaking the silence and started to push Rory back toward the Gilmore residence.

"Hey, Sookie, I can take it from here," Lorelai told her friend with a tight lipped smile and took over the Rory-pushing.

Sookie returned the smile with an uneasy look at Rory. Ambling off, she tripped over a plant, did a little dance to capture her balance, and continued home. They heard a large 'crash' followed by an: "I'm okay!"

"Do you think she's dead?" Rory asked, her teeth chattering.

"She's Sookie, she'll be okay," Lorelai attempted to joke back, but her tone was withholding its normal Lorelai-charm.

"I'm sorry, mom," Rory told her, looking away.

"Do you want to explain to me what you're sorry about?" Lorelai snapped, sounding quite a bit like the feared Emily.

"Not telling you about the boy from New York, for a start," Rory admitted, blinking back a few emotions that she couldn't even begin to name.

"Jess was the boy from New York," Lorelai repeated to herself.

"Yeah," Rory admitted, looking away.

"Ten million people to pick from and you happened picked him," Lorelai sighed out.

"We didn't exactly 'pick', it was just… fate," Rory attempted to explain, shrugging her shoulders a little bit.

"Fate?" Lorelai pondered.

"Yeah… I don't know, it just seemed like I was supposed to go with him," Rory projected, unable to really say the words that she felt.

"Supposed to go with him," Lorelai repeated again.

"Do you need a pirate to go with those feathers?" Rory remarked, although her chattering teeth took away from the effect.

Lorelai glared at her but hugged her close. They walked into their yard and Rory felt something run down her back. She looked around, and finally her eyes caught onto a dark shadow sitting on her front porch. At first she thought it was Jess, but then she realized that it was Dean.

"Hey," he said as they walked near them.

Over the summer, avoiding him had gotten pointless. They'd gone back to being friends with the occasional witty comment that might be mistaken for a flirt, but she just… hadn't made up her mind yet. Dean said he'd wait, but now that Jess was back in town… was there any point?

"Hi," Lorelai greeted back and motioned him inside. "I'm just going to run upstairs for a few minutes."

Rory watched in desperation as her mother ran up the stairs. She chattered a bit more and grabbed the blanket off the couch.

"Hi, Dean, not that I'm not happy to see you, because I am, but what are you doing here?" she asked uneasily.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm willing to give this another shot… if you are. I love you, but I think that this 'friendship' is driving us farther apart," he told her.

"I can't," Rory whispered to him, feeling numb now.

"What?" Dean asked, looking very hurt.

"I don't want to hurt you, I can't. I don't love you," Rory finally said. They both knew that the words were true, but she saw a look that passed over his face saying that this wasn't over yet.

"Is there someone else?" he demanded angrily.

"I don't know," she answered honestly and shrugged her shoulders.

The phone rang as he was about to ask his next question, and she stared at it uneasily. They didn't have caller ID for their home phone, so she had no idea who it was. Sighing, she looked at him guiltily then went to the phone and picked it up.

"Hello?" she asked, watching Dean to make sure that he wouldn't do anything rash.

"_Hey,"_ Jess's voice answered her, and she knew that the stupid smile that poured onto her face wasn't a good sign, especially with Dean standing there.

"Can I call you back, we still have company," she half-lied.

"_Don't bother. Meet me at the bridge in half an hour, alright_?" he requested.

"Again?" she demanded, in the same tone that one would ask if a person's crazy.

"_Luke knows I'm going this time, tell Lorelai… that way they won't send the hounds after us,"_ he joked, and she smiled again. Every time she smiled, Dean seemed to get angrier, more suspicious.

"Who is that?" he asked, pointing at the phone.

"I'll meet you there," she promised. "Bye."

"_Later,"_ Jess responded as the phone clicked off.

"That was the diner," Rory lied through her teeth, looking at Dean cautiously. He looked like he was about ready to destroy something.

"The diner, what the hell is Luke doing calling so late?" Dean snapped, suspicious of both the phone call and her now.

"I didn't eat dinner, so they're delivering me something to eat," she replied quickly, saying things from the top of her head.

"To somewhere that isn't your house?" he prodded and looked at the phone again.

"Look, Dean… I'm tired, I'm cold, and I have to change. I'm sorry that I can't try this again… but it just… doesn't feel right. I don't want to hurt you," she explained tiredly.

"You won't hurt me, you love me. I know you do, you just… won't admit it," he proclaimed, and she glared at him out of the corner of her eye.

"You have no idea what I feel," she snapped, and pushed past him to her room.

"No, I know, because I couldn't feel what I feel unless you felt it too," Dean pressed, following her into her room.

"Get out," Rory yelled, pointing at the door.

"What?" he asked as though he'd have never expected it.

"Please, leave, I have somewhere I need to be," she said again, coldly.

"No, this is insane. Why won't you give this another chance?" he demanded and walked right up to her. A flash of fear struck her, but she knew that Dean would never hurt her.

"There is nothing there, I don't love you, I can't love you," she replied, moving farther into her room, towards the still-open window.

"I don't believe that," he shouted and closed the distance between them. He tried to kiss her, but she pushed him away again.

"I tried all summer for this. All summer! But you turned me down. Now that I actually have something else going for me, you try to come back and act as though nothing happened? No, it did happen. I want you to leave," she screamed, pointing at the door again and hugging closer to the window.

At that moment, Lorelai appeared at the door. Rory caught her mother's eye and noticed, for the first time, that she was crying. There were tears running down her face and she reached up to wipe them away before turning back to her mother. She knew how protective people were of her, and she didn't want this blown totally out of proportion. The look on her mother's face could have melted a weaker man's body into a puddle of skin-goo. Lorelai stormed angrily into the room and stood right up to Dean, despite being a decent amount shorter.

"What the hell are you doing?" she challenged him.

"Nothing!" he bellowed in her face and left the house.

"Get out," Lorelai returned.

"Fine!" he muttered after a few seconds and stormed out of the house.

Rory sunk slowly to the ground, letting the tears take over. Lorelai sunk down beside her and she clung to her. In the past two months, she'd seen a completely different side of Dean. Was this what it was going to be like? He seemed totally happy one minute, and then the next he'd be yelling and ranting.

"What happened?" Lorelai asked quietly, running her hands through her daughter's hair.

"Jess… he called, and I'm supposed to be meeting him by the bridge," Rory declared, just remembering. She started changing, her mother had seen it all before, and slipped into some drier clothes.

"Wait… again? Rory," her mother began warningly, but Rory just kissed her and dashed out of the room.

She was out of the door and halfway down the driveway before her mother got out onto the porch, but she barely even noticed. She made it to the bridge in record time, breathing heavily from the running. He wasn't there yet, which worked just fine for her. She sat down on the edge and attempted to relearn how to breathe.

"Huh, and here I thought you'd be the late one," Jess called out in greeting as he appeared on one edge of the bridge.

Rory looked up at him as he walked towards her. He looked amazing, he always did. Somehow he'd even had time to fix his hair. She smiled slightly and wrapped her arms around her waist. "Sit down?"

"Okay," he nodded, and sat beside her. They sat there, staring at the water, at each other, and then anywhere else.

"Dean was at my house," Rory started, and then stopped. Jess probably had no idea who Dean was. She looked up at him, and the expression on his face proved it. He had no clue. "Dean is my ex-boyfriend."

"Huh," he muttered in response, but didn't say anything else.

"He wants me to give what we had another shot," she continued. This time he didn't respond, just looked down at the water pensively. "I said no."

"Is that so?" he asked, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Yup, told him that there were better fish in the sea. You know, the broody James Dean-y like ones," she commented with a small smile.

"Huh," he said again and moved closer to her. His hand was soon cradling her face, carefully running its fingertips through her hair. She leant into it and placed a hand on his shoulder gently.

"How does the broody James Dean-y fish feel about it?" she asked him quietly, caught up in the feeling of his skin on hers.

"It thinks it needs a new nickname," he quipped and kissed her. Her body responded on its own, pressing against him lightly. It was a strange feeling, actually wanting to be with him. He was passionate, yet romantic. It seemed like he was the precise opposite of Dean.

"You know they're watching," he commented against her mouth.

"They are?" she asked, but kept kissing him.

"Mhm, they're hiding in the bushes behind you," he told her and she pulled away a little bit.

"You're serious?" she deadpanned, but didn't turn around to check.

"Yeah, I think they have popcorn," he frowned, looking very carefully over her shoulder.

"Maybe we should go somewhere else?" she suggested, uncomfortable with the idea of kissing him in front of her mother.

"Sure," he agreed and stood up, offering her a hand.

"Thanks," she said and quickly turned to see Luke and Lorelai hidden in a bush a few meters away. She squinted and saw the popcorn. Shaking her head, she turned back to him and smiled slightly.

"Have anywhere in mind?" he asked her, not knowing the town enough to know a less showy spot.

"Why don't we go to Luke's, get something to eat," she suggested, realizing that she was actually quite hungry.

"Okay," he said with a nod and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. They walked right past the two sitting in the bushes, who continued to stare at them, and then dash from bush to bush following them. After a few minutes of this, Rory and Jess couldn't help but laugh a little bit. That was when the two 'skulkers' realized they'd been caught, and they fell into step beside them.

"Popcorn?" Lorelai offered sheepishly. Rory smiled and took a handful. Jess ignored it and smirked at the two of them.

"You should get a tux," he suggested to Luke.

"What?" Luke asked, not getting where it was coming from.

"That way your 'James Bond' impression will have a better effect," Jess assured sarcastically.

"How long did you know we were there?" Lorelai asked quickly.

"Since you tripped over a root and fell into the lake," Jess shrugged, and Rory frowned.

"You fell into the lake?" she asked, looking at her mother. She didn't appear to be wet, until she looked down. Her left leg was drenched from the knee down.

"It attacked me!" Lorelai pouted.

"Right," Jess agreed with a nod.

The group fell into comfortable silence, everyone being at least partially okay with what was going on. When they reached the diner, Luke opened it up and let them inside. Jess sat with them at their normal table, by the door. Rory gave him a shy glance when he kept their hands together on the table.

"So… you met in New York?" Lorelai began the interrogation.

"Yup," Rory answered too chipper, too happy, obviously a warning.

"Coffee?" Luke asked from behind the counter, and Lorelai replied with a nod.

"What brings you to Stars Hollow?" Lorelai continued.

"It doesn't matter, he's here," Rory answered again, glaring pointedly.

"Are you-," Lorelai started, but was abruptly cut off by coffee cups arriving.

Luke then proceeded to sit down beside them, effectively cutting off the interrogation.

"This isn't awkward," Rory muttered and Jess leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. He let her hand go and placed it inside his jacket's pockets.

"Does anyone want something to eat?" Luke suggested, anxious to get them out of the strange stalemate that Lorelai's questions had forced them into.

"Yes!" Rory said a bit too enthusiastically, which earned a few different looks from the people at the table. "What? I'm hungry."

"I'll take a cheeseburger," Lorelai told him.

"Make that two?" Rory requested.

"Coming right up," Luke nodded, and then went off to fill their order.

"Anyway, Jess," Lorelai started again, but he stood up from the table and went upstairs.

"Mom," Rory scolded, and stood up to go after him. Luke emerged from the kitchen just as she was going up the stairs, and she saw the baffled look on his face. Sighing, she pushed the curtain away and climbed up to the office.

"Jess?" she called when she reached the door, and pushed it open hesitantly.

"Hey," he replied without actually looking at her. It appeared that he was fascinated with his CD's.

"Look, that was probably weird, but she's not always like that," she excused, motioning towards the stairs.

"Is that so?" he brushed off and placed a CD into the player. After a few seconds of non-playing, he muttered a few things to himself and kicked it. "Damn it."

"It'll get better! I mean, after a bit, when she's used to it," she continued, placing a hand on his arm. "She's my best friend. Please try to get along with her?"

"I don't do parents," he reminded her with a pointed look at the stairs, and then took his CD out and placed it back in its case.

"Why am I doing this?" she asked suddenly, breaking the silence. "I mean, I don't even really know you, but I'm already defending you and introducing you to my mother. Sure, we met in New York, and we had… something, but it could have happened with anyone. I was just, broken, and hurt. Now I don't have to be. Dean came up to me and asked me to give him another chance, and I could, you know. I don't have to deal with this brooding. If you're just going to be a jerk, I don't even want to start this."

He started off watching her in something akin to fear, but soon spread into an emotionless look, and finally he had to look away. She saw something run across his face when she mentioned Dean, but she hesitated to call it jealousy. It was obvious that she didn't really know him enough to be able to judge what emotions were written on his face.

"If that's what you want," he shrugged off, and started organizing his CDs.

"That's it?" Rory snapped, moving so that she was standing between him and his CDs.

"Look, I apologized, I came here, and I even went so far as to actually 'meet' your mother. I don't like being questioned, I don't like small talk, and I don't like being berated for my opinions," he snapped right back.

"Fine, then… it's your loss," she growled, and they stared at each other.

"I guess not. Hell, if it could have happened with anyone, then I'm just one of the many. For all I knew about you, I could be putting my entire life on the line for some flirt. Do you think that I want to be here, in Stars Hollow? No, just hell fucking no, I'd rather be living on the streets of New York," he returned, and pushed away from her, walking across the apartment so that he wouldn't have to be near her.

"Then why are you here?" she demanded, walking after him. Instead of answering, he gave her an incredulous look over his shoulder, and she felt herself blush. Shaking her head, she marched in front of him again. "Why are you here?"

"Go back to Dean," Jess mocked and walked away from her, out into the diner. She followed him, angry and upset with herself for using Dean against him. When she got to the diner, he was already leaving.

"Hey, where are you going?" Luke shouted after him.

"Out," Jess growled in return, slamming the door after him.

"Jess, wait!" Rory asked as she stumbled down the stairs and out the door again. "Stop!"

"Why?" he snarled, turning around to face her again, but stopping in the process.

"Because… you stopped," she answered simply.

"What?" he said softly, a confused frown appearing on his face.

"You stopped…" she pointed out again, wrapping her arms around her waist.

"Still not getting it," he mumbled, looking frustrated.

"What happened in New York wasn't just… nothing. It was something, and it meant something to me," she corrected herself with a shrug.

"Then what the hell was that in there?" he demanded, pointing up at the apartment.

"That was me being stupid, and trying to get you to talk to my mother," Rory admitted guiltily, looking away.

"I'll talk to her when I feel like it," he snapped, and started walking away again.

"If you walk away again, I'm not following you," she told him, her voice ringing in the empty streets.

"What makes you think I want you to follow me?" he asked, turning around to face her again from a few meters away.

"You stopped again," she shrugged with a small smile.

"You're a very difficult girl to deal with, do you know that?" he questioned, but there was the smallest hint of a smirk on his face.

"Well, I figure that I need to be interesting to keep the fellows around," she mocked, taking a few steps towards him. He mirrored her steps and they stopped a few inches away from each other, touching distance.

"Fellows, huh?" he returned, reaching hand out to touch her elbow, bringing her towards him a bit more.

"Yup, dozens of 'em, they're lining up around the corner," she quipped, biting her lip when she noted that they were just a hair's breath away from kissing again.

"I guess I'm the lucky one," he breathed against her lips, and she attempted to look serious at him.

"One in ten million," she chided, and they moved against each other. Her hands crawled over his shoulders and wrapped around his neck, playing with the soft hairs located there while his wrapped around her back and ran up and down her spin, causing shivers.

"Ten million?" he inquired with a look.

"Nothing," she replied and they kissed. It was very soft at first, until his tongue brushed the edge of her lips. Feeling her knees go week, she pulled herself against him and allowed him entrance. That passion that she'd never known with Dean overtook her. His hands supported her when she didn't think that she would be able to hold herself up any longer, while hers fluttered through his hairs, ruining it once again.

"They're still watching," he reminded her breathlessly.

"Let them," she teased and they resumed their kiss. When they broke apart a few minutes later, they both had identically goofy smiles on.

"So… your mother?" he sighed, taking her hand and leading her back to Luke's.

"She's not all bad," she attempted to reason, opening the door and letting them inside.

Two hours later, Rory and Lorelai returned back to their house slowly, laughing and mocking all the way.

"I can't believe you asked him what his intentions were," Rory mocked, leaning on her mother's shoulder for support.

"But his face was priceless! It's so much fun to tease them when they hate parents," Lorelai cackled, and Rory swatted her playfully.

"You'll scare him away before he gets the chance," Rory chided as they arrived on the edge of their lawn.

"Gets the chance to do what?" Lorelai snapped to attention, and Rory bit her lip, looking away. "Oh, no, none of that, at not for another year at least."

"What?" Rory asked innocently, but they both knew what was on her mind.

"Promise me that it won't be some spur of the moment thing? You'll think about it, and you'll be… safe, and why him?" Lorelai ended up whining, sulking on their porch.

"Stop it, you," Rory muttered, opening the door and stepping inside.

"I have a responsibility to hate the guys my daughter dates," Lorelai pouted, hanging up her jacket and leading them into the kitchen.

"You didn't hate Dean," Rory reminded her stubbornly.

"Lately?" Lorelai snarled, remembering the incident in the bedroom, then at Doose's, and uncountable incidents in between. The summer had been filled with Dean-incidents.

"But I haven't been dating him lately," Rory pointed out, going into her bedroom with a yawn.

"Good point… but at least Jess is just as fun to tease," Lorelai cackled again, and Rory glared at her.

"He doesn't really like parents," she admitted with sigh.

"No 'Bad Boy' does, and what was he muttering about fish?" Lorelai asked suddenly.

"Oh, just something I said earlier tonight," Rory brushed off, remembering when Jess had started muttering about how James Dean-y fishes were supposed to have a right to hate parents without question.

"You called him a fish?" Lorelai prodded, sitting on her daughter's bed and flopping back onto the mattress.

"Yup, a James Dean-y fish," Rory informed her with an evil grin of her own.

"You know… that fits," Lorelai confirmed with a nod and they both laughed.

"I'm tired," Rory muttered and flopped down beside her mother.

"Sleepy time," Lorelai sign-songed, and laid her head against Rory's shoulder.

"Go to your own bed," Rory scolded, pointing towards the stairs.

"But that takes so much effort," Lorelai whined, but slowly dragged herself to her feet.

"G'night," Rory said as her mother hit the door. Just as she was about to leave, Lorelai turned and leaned against the doorframe. She had a very serious look on her face. "What?"

"You'll listen to what I said, right?" she asked.

"About?" Rory pressed, not quite sure how it applied to their conversation a few minutes ago.

"About the Jess and the sleeping with Jess?" Lorelai filled in, and Rory felt a blush appear on her cheeks.

"I was just joking," Rory brushed off and went to her closet to find something to change into.

"But… even if you weren't… you'll wait. You can't just jump into that kind of thing. He may look all sexy and dangerous, but he could end up ripping your heart to shreds. I know that you already half, if not more, love him, and as much as it scares me, it's not my place to tell you who to, and not to, love. Jess isn't Dean," Lorelai finished with a tight-lipped smile.

"I know that he's not, mom. If I wanted Dean, I could have Dean. But… thanks for worrying. I'll listen," Rory confirmed and returned the smile.

"Goodnight," Lorelai said after a few seconds of staring, and closed the door behind her.

Rory sighed and looked at her books. Frowning, she walked over to them and noted that one of them was missing. She ran her hand over the small space and tried to figure out what it was. It was easy to notice when a book was missing, because her books were always jam-packed to the point where you'd squish your fingers attempting to get one out. After another few minutes of pondering, it finally hit her that Jess had been looking at her books. Frowning, she returned to her bed, changing on the way, and curled up beneath the covers.

The next evening, Rory was walking home from getting a folder. She'd done the interview with Max, and despite the awkwardness, it had gone really, really well. She had a lot of information, and was packing it into a folder so she and Paris could go over it on the weekend and figure out what was staying and what was going. As she was stepping onto the street, she noted that someone had fallen in line beside her.

"Hey," she greeted cheerfully, and stepped closer to him.

"Hey," he returned, curling an arm around her waist. Almost instantly, she felt the eyes of everyone in town on them. "What're you doing?"

"Getting something for school, and you?" she inquired, smiling up at him.

"Oh yeah, me too," he answered sarcastically, and kissed her softly. She frowned at him and pulled away slightly, stopping them.

"You didn't happen to steal one of my books, did you?" she inquired.

"Me, steal? Why, Miss Gilmore, what do you take me for?" he asked, even as he pulled the book out of his back pocket. "I just added some notes in the margins for you."

"Notes?" she panicked, snatching the books from his hands and reading the words carefully. "You've read it before?"

"About forty times," he remarked with a shrug and a well-placed smirk.

"Your definition of 'much' needs to be rearranged," she scolded and leaned against him again.

"How many times have you read it?" he asked playfully.

"That doesn't matter," she replied defiantly.

"How many?" he pressed.

"Over one hundred," she muttered guiltily.

"Uh huh," he murmured, satisfied with her answer.

"Hey, this isn't about me, it's about you," she pointed out, shoving his side lightly.

"Sure," he chided, smirking down at her again.

"Mean," she grumped, placing the book back inside her bag. "So, are you responsible for the new hole I have in my collection as of a few hours ago?"

"Maybe," he answered with a shrug.

"How did you even get that book? I mean, I've been home, working, all night. I would have noticed you," she remarked, looking at him with a mixture of fear and wonder.

"I have my ways," he responded, and stopped them. This was obviously where he got off the road.

"You'll have to tell me sooner or later," she reminded him and let her hand slide down his arm to his hand.

"Nope," he objected and leaned forwards, so that their foreheads were pressed against each other's. She glared, but didn't respond. Soon they were kissing again, her school supplies dropped on the ground and forgotten in the need to wrap her arms around his neck.

"I have to go," she told him, not wanting to.

"Stay," he attempted to convince her, pulling her closer and kissing her passionately.

"But school, my mom," she reminded him between kisses. It was the 'mom' bit that finally broke him away.

"I'll call you?" he suggested as she leaned down to pick up her books.

"Okay. When?" she replied with a wide smile, and backed away.

"Later," he shrugged, and she glared at him. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Dodger," she grumped and turned to walk away.

"Dodger?" he called after her, and she turned to see him standing where she'd left him.

"Figure it out," she taunted, and started away from him again.

"Oliver Twist!" he shouted, and when she turned back to tell him he was right, he was already out of site. She smiled the goofy smile again and pressed the book he gave her against her chest. As she walked away, more than one person was giving her odd looks, but in her post-Jess haze, she didn't notice any of them.


	4. You Conquered Me

Rory took a deep breath and entered into the diner. There was Jess, sauntering about in a hideous t-shirt with Luke glaring at him over his shoulder.

"Umm?" she inquired, stopping him on his coffee run and motioning to his shirt.

"Luke doesn't like it," he shrugged absently and filled someone else's coffee cup. "Want to see that book?

"That book that we talked about?" she offered, and Luke rolled his eyes.

"I've got it upstairs," he said teasingly, gaining a few stares from the people around them. No one knew about them yet. It was an important part of their ploy to not have everyone following them around constantly.

"Great, so let's go upstairs," she agreed, motioning towards the stairs.

"I'm on a break," Jess barked casually to Luke, tossing the coffee pot on the counter and leading her up the stairs to the apartment. "The book's over there on the table."

"Wait… there's actually a book?" she questioned, and drifted to the table beside the couch and lifted up a copy of the Fountainhead. "You read it?"

"I hated it," he shrugged and tossed her three Hemingways. "And you lost."

"No way!" she objected, looking through the book in her hand and identifying all his handwriting on the pages. "I'm not even past the fifth chapter…"

He didn't say anything, only smirked at her and sat back in the couch with a raised eyebrow. She glared at him, knowing that he'd probably been up all night reading the book just to beat her. Her Hemingway, which had been his challenge, was lying in her sheets somewhere. She'd fallen asleep with it the previous night. Suddenly what could have been a very cute moment was destroyed by a painful lurch of nerves.

"I have something to ask you," she brought up quickly, knowing that she wouldn't get the chance if she didn't do it now.

"No way, I won that means that it's my challenge," he objected, shaking his head slightly.

"Then consider this a forward on me kicking your ass next time," she said quickly and sat down beside him, taking another deep breath. "I have to go to this thing that has these girls in white dresses and fans and names and society and my grandmother's going to be there with my mom and my dad and everyone and I need an escort who's supposed to be my boyfriend and you're sorta my boyfriend, 'cept no one really knows, but you're still my boyfriend and I need an escort and could you please come with me?"

"Wait… white dresses, fans and society? Do you mean a debutant ball?" he stared at her in horror.

"Jess, please?" she begged when she saw him start to pull away.

"No," he shook his head.

"Please, please, please, please?" she begged more.

"I said no," he said evenly.

"I kinda already gave them your name," she cringed.

"Ah," he sighed in frustration and stood up. "I don't do these weird ceremonies and festivals."

"I know, but this is important to me, and I want you to be there," she attempted again, standing up and following him in his meandering around the apartment.

"No," he said firmly, stopping in his place and turning to face her. "No."

"What would it take?" she asked with a wave of her arms.

"More than you're willing to give," he joked and sat back down on the couch.

"Jess," she groaned and followed him, sitting on his lap and forcing his eyes from the book he'd taken to reading.

"Yes?" he asked her nonchalantly.

"Come with me?" she pleaded again, kissing him softly.

"No," he repeated against her lips. Her hands weaved through his hair and pushed him back on the couch so that they were horizontal, her on top of him.

"Come with me?" she said again between kisses.

"No," he declined, shaking his head, but she could see the fractures in his carefully made up armor.

"Come with me?" she asked once more as one of his hands slipped beneath her shirt and he ran his fingertips along her skin there. Her breath caught and fire blazed across her skin, causing her breathing to go short.

"No," he whispered, but she knew that there was only a very small wall blocking her from her goal.

"Yes," she breathed against him and she felt his body shudder ever so slightly beneath hers.

"You know, if your mother comes upstairs, she'd kill us," he informed her, kissing her again.

"Good thing she isn't here," Rory joked and then pulled back. "Yes?"

"No," he declined, and she sat up more, he followed her, trying to kiss her again.

"Yes?" she chirped and saw the annoyance in his eyes.

"No," he growled, and tried to use his hands on her back to pull her towards him again. She jerked away and leapt off the couch.

"Yes?" she requested, standing on the opposite side of the table from him. He grabbed one of her arms and half-lifted, half-threw her over the table so that she was lying beneath him on the couch. Rory couldn't help but feel a thrill of anticipation and give in to him when he did this.

"Jess, say yes," she begged him again.

"Will it make you shut up?" he groaned, hiding his face in her neck.

"Yup," she said happily, knowing that she'd broken him.

"So… tux, tails, gloves, anything else?" he grumbled.

"How are you so well-versed in debutante balls?" she demanded, sitting up and forcing him off her again.

"They're called books. They have pages with writing on them. Occasionally they depict certain traditions," he sighed, sitting on the opposite side of the couch from her.

"You've read books on debutante balls?" she asked him with a grin.

"No, I've read books that have involved debutante balls," he told her, eyeing her in warning.

"Really?" she asked, barely believing it.

"Drop it," he growled.

"But you'll do it?" she attempted to confirm.

"Shh," he shushed her and kissed her again.

"No, stop, say yes," she scolded, pushing him away but following him as well, unable to keep from kissing him either.

"Will there be pictures?" he cringed.

"Yup, lots of them," she assured him.

"And you want to go?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered confidently, kissing him again.

"Yes," he finally said, and pushed her back on the couch. Their hands and tongues fought a battle over which territory they would claim. The lines had already been drawn. Rory was pretty much allowed to do anything to him, but he had to keep his hands above her clothes and not within three centimeters of anything too private, as per Lorelai's demands.

The door smashed open and the three people now in the room jerked away from each other. Rory and Jess to opposite sides of the apartment, Lorelai to the top of the stairs. None of them moved for a few minutes until Lorelai crawled back into the room.

"So… he said yes?" Lorelai asked, shielding her eyes.

"Yup," Rory chirped.

"It works every time," Lorelai cheered, and the two women hugged while Jess rolled his eyes.

"You two are evil, you know that?" he joked, shaking his head slightly.

"Guess what happens now?" Lorelai exclaimed in excitement.

"What?" Rory replied back with just as much enthusiasm.

"Tux shopping!" Lorelai shouted, causing Jess to pale slightly.

"I'll buy my own, thanks," he grumbled.

"No way! I want to see you in a tux!" Lorelai objected.

"And you will… at the ball," he informed her, grabbing his jacket and saluting her with a book on his way out.

"Is he always like that?" Lorelai asked as they followed him down the stairs and watched as he shouted with Luke for a moment on his way out of the diner.

"Define: Always," Rory retorted with a small shrug of her shoulders.

"How can you stand him?" Luke asked gruffly as he stormed back behind the counter.

"I don't think they talk much," Lorelai informed him, causing Rory and Luke to stare at her in horror.

"Mom!" Rory screeched, looking around to make sure that no one else had heard it.

"They're going to find out sometime," Lorelai sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I didn't need to know that," Luke finally said, coming out of his shock a little later than the rest of them.

"Go, go find your lover-boy," Lorelai told Rory dramatically as her daughter started doing the Jess-dance.

"I'll be home… late," Rory told her. It was barely four in the afternoon on a Thursday afternoon, but all three of them knew that it didn't mean anything. The two of them would spend a good hour arguing about books, another kissing, then another agreeing to a new challenge, and then another arguing about the challenge, and then another make out session. Pretty soon it was one in the morning and Lorelai had to come hunt them down. Their system worked well… or at least, after the first time it worked well.

"Meet you at the bridge later?" Lorelai asked.

"Probably," Rory replied with a shrug on her way out. Jess was a barely seeable shadow. He was going into a tux store. She blinked, not having expected him to do it so quickly.

Sneaking, she followed him and hung out outside the shop, trying to see what he was booking.

"What are we doing?" Lane asked, skidding to a stop beside her and going into stealth mode.

"God! You scared me!" Rory whisper-shouted.

"Sorry," Lane shrugged. "Are we on Jess-watch?"

"Yup… he agreed to go to the ball," Rory informed her gleefully.

"Even with the tux?" Lane deadpanned. No one really expected Jess to go through with it.

"And the gloves… he already knew about it all," Rory stated, frowning still at what books they'd discussed where a debutante ball played such a large role.

"Weird," Lane muttered and stared through the window. They were watching as Jess started shouting at the tux guy. At first the tux-guy was yelling back, and then Jess said something that caused him to shrink down to the size of a mouse and do whatever Jess shouted at him to do. "He's good."

"I like him," Rory said cheerfully, admiring her boyfriend. Everyone considered him an asshole, but she loved him. So sue her.

"How long has it been now?" Lane asked distractedly.

"A month," Rory recited.

"It's amazing that you haven't been caught yet," Lane sighed.

"We had help from the best," Rory told her with a small smile. "Speaking of which… why are you out sneaking?"

"Grocery shopping," Lane explained, showing her a few different veggies and some very questionable other materials. "He's coming out!"

"Scatter!" Rory squeaked and she and Lane ran their own separate ways. Rory hid in the little separation between the tux shop and the one next to it. She'd wait until he got a little father away before she started following him.

"So, did you like the colour I chose?" Jess asked, and she smelt the familiar scent of his cigarettes.

"Busted," Rory sighed.

"I knew you were there from the moment I stepped in. When you're hiding, you should probably duck," he informed her with a smirk and flicked away some ashes.

"I'll remember that next time," she grumbled and stepped out from between the buildings.

"I didn't pick up my tux, I don't want you to see it," he explained, discarding his cigarette casually.

"Taylor's going to beat you with that cigarette," she told him for the millionth time that month.

"I think that he'll probably beat you first for spending as much time with me as you do," Jess said quietly, motioning at all the stares they were getting.

"This would be so much easier if we didn't have to lie," Rory mumbled, pulling out a book and pretending to discuss it with him.

"Yeah, but then we'd have our own personal gawking group," he shrugged and pointed out a few different things in the book for affect.

"We need an easier way to do this," Rory grumbled as she tripped over another stone, too concentrated on the whole 'fake reading' thing.

"But how else would we amuse your mother?" he countered with a roll of his eyes and then snatched the book out of her hand and frowned at it.

"Hey!" Rory objected. She didn't even know what they'd been reading, but that wasn't the point. He'd taken her book… again!

"This isn't my handwriting," he pointed out, reading a comment that was written beneath one of his.

"I answered your thoughts," she stated, and he looked at her carefully.

"I thought you didn't vandalize your possessions?" he asked with a small smirk.

"Well, if everyone else is doing it," she grumbled and snatched the book again, shoving it back in her bag and glaring at him.

"When's the ball?" he inquired after a few minutes of silence. They were still on their way to the bridge, taking their dear, sweet time to do it.

"This weekend," she replied, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Giving me a lot of warning, huh?" he scoffed.

"Hey… I had to gain up the courage to ask you first!" she objected.

"Yeah, cause what you did to me was so hard," he snapped.

"How else was I supposed to get you to agree?" she shot back.

He said nothing, didn't even look at her. She sighed and turned away, not quite sure what to say about things. When they were only a block away from the bridge, finally, someone chased after them, calling Rory's name.

"Rory!" it said, and she felt her blood run cold.

"Jess… meet me at the bridge," she requested under her breath.

Instead of listening to her, he turned around to see Dean running at them. Jess raised an eyebrow. This kid had been trying to talk to her the entire month they were together. Rory had only told him that he was an ex-boyfriend, none of the details and especially not why he'd been chasing her around like a little puppy dog.

"Dean, hi," Rory said as he gained ground on them. "Jess, please." Jess didn't move or speak, just watched.

"Rory, I need to talk to you," the guy told them. He was wearing his apron from Doose's market. He was probably on his break.

"What do you want, Dean? I really… I don't think I'm ready to talk to you yet," she informed him gently, not wanting to make him as mad as he'd been at her house a month ago.

"Look, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I guess that I can keep waiting if you want," he shrugged, as though he was still the one in her heart.

"Dean, I already told you… I don't love you," she replied softly.

"Who's this?" Dean asked suddenly, pointing at Jess.

"I'm no one," Jess told him harshly.

"He's Jess," Rory amended.

"Jess who?" Dean growled, as though Rory was still his to protect.

"Jess from Luke's, he works there," she broke in and stepped between them.

"So why isn't he working there?" Dean continued, and Rory bit her lip, looking at Jess. She could see the slight tightness to his emotionless façade that said he wasn't amused and that the guy was getting on his nerves.

"Because I'm showing him around town," she lied through her teeth.

"He's been here a month and he hasn't seen the town yet?" Dean snarled at her, seeing through the lie immediately.

"Leave," Jess finally said, breaking up the interrogation.

"What?" Dean snapped at him.

"I said: 'Leave'," Jess repeated.

"Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?" Dean shouted, stepping around Rory and standing against Jess. They each had to crane their necks to see each other, if it would have been a different occasion, she probably would have thought it was funny.

"Someone who's getting their tour interrupted by a jealous asshole," Jess hissed in return. He wasn't about to raise his voice.

"Stay away from Rory!" Dean exploded, shoving Jess back.

"Dean!" Rory screamed, running to Jess's side as he stumbled backwards and slammed into a tree.

Jess didn't give her enough time to get to him. He launched himself at Dean, shoving him back into a tree behind him and punching him in the stomach. Dean shoved him back again and swung at him. Jess ducked and punched Dean in the head then grabbed his shirt, tossing him to the ground and straddling him, punching him repeatedly.

"Jess!" Rory bust in, grabbing his arm. He looked at Dean and then at Rory and took a deep breath. He let his arm, which was armed for another swing, drop and climbed off her ex.

"Let's go," he said softly, taking her hand and leading them away.

"What the hell was that?" she exclaimed when they reached the bridge, tearing her hand from his.

"That was me being attacked," Jess pointed out, reaching into his back pocket for a cigarette.

"Why did you hit him back?" she screamed.

"Because you're not his anymore and he needs to see that!" he shouted right back.

"But you didn't need to hit him!" she continued to object.

"Whatever," Jess scoffed, lighting the cigarette and taking a deep drag. After a few seconds of non-speaking, he turned to glare at her again. "I'll see you this weekend."

"That's two days away," Rory pointed out, following him as he started back towards town again.

"Huh," Jess muttered.

"Jess," she started, but he continued to ignore her. "You didn't need to attack him!"

"I didn't attack him!" Jess shouted, but still didn't turn around.

"Stop!" Rory pleaded, grabbing his hand and turning him around. By now they were in the middle of the square. All the people who'd gathered around for the Jess/Dean battle were now standing there watching them, confused as to what was going on. They'd never spent this much time around each other in public previously. So far as everyone in town knew, they were just friends… friends who argued a lot.

"Why, why should I stop?" he raved, throwing her arm off him and turning around to face her in frustration.

"Because… because!" she said, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Because 'why'?" he shouted, stepping backwards to get away from her.

"Because I love you!" she screamed, and they both froze. It had been a month… only a month, but those feelings had already been there. They both knew it, but neither had bothered to speak them, fearing what it would mean for them.

"What?" he gasped, his voice losing all its former anger and strength.

"I love you!" she said again, not quite as loud. The crowd around them started chattering mercilessly.

"Huh," he replied, still floored with her very loud admission, especially in the middle of town where all the people who didn't know they were together would hear them.

"Jess?" she asked, wanting to hear the words back desperately.

"I'll see you on Saturday," he repeated, turning around and walking back to the diner in a state of shock.

Rory watched him; feeling like her heart had been torn out of her chest. She thought about the things she could say to make him stay, but nothing came to mind. She'd pretty much offered him her heart on a platter, and he'd sharpened his knives.

Tears streamed down her face as she turned towards her house. She walked absently, ignoring all the worried glances around her and trying desperately to ignore the feeling of her heart shattering. When she opened the front door, her mother greeted her from the couch.

"You're home early," she stated, standing up and walking over to the struggling teenager.

"I just told him I loved him," Rory told her shakily.

"What?" Lorelai gasped, grabbing Rory into her arms and hugging her close.

"I told him I loved him," she cried again, sobbing into her mother's shoulders.

"What did he say?" Lorelai pressed, gathering her closer.

"He didn't say anything," Rory whispered, barely believing it.

"Oh, Sweetie," Lorelai attempted to console her.

A few hours later, Rory laid half-dead on her bed. She stared blankly at the wall before her, unable to do anything. Books couldn't help her, music was making it worse. They all reminded her of him. He was everywhere, she couldn't avoid him. How was it that someone she'd known for a little over a month could have such power over her? Another three hours later, she was still sitting there. Dinner had come and gone, but she hadn't moved from that position.

"Rory…" Lorelai began as she entered into the room. "I talked to Jess."

"What?" Rory gasped, sitting up on her bed for the first time since she'd collapsed there.

"Do you still want him to go on Saturday?" Lorelai asked softly.

"I don't think I could get anyone else," Rory cried softly.

"I think you need to talk to him," Lorelai brought up.

"I'm not ready to talk to him," Rory rejected.

"Alright… so, movies and junk food?" Lorelai suggested with a clap of her hands.

"Sure," Rory agreed tearfully.

Her mother was asleep on the couch another five hours later. They'd attempted a movie marathon, but her mother hadn't lasted through the second. It was almost two in the morning, she had school the next day, but she didn't feel like sleeping. At the end of the third movie, Lorelai finally woke up.

"Hey… have you slept?" she asked drearily, curling an arm around her daughter.

"No," Rory admitted guiltily.

"Come on, let's get you to bed. Do you want to go to school tomorrow?" Lorelai asked cautiously, knowing how much it meant to her.

"Yeah, I have to," Rory whimpered as they staggered to their feet and into Rory's bedroom. The second that they hid the mattress, she felt tired. Her mother fell asleep with her arm draped across her stomach and she soon felt herself follow.

The alarm woke them barely four hours later and Rory couldn't help but hate herself for agreeing to go to school that day. Nudging her mother awake, she crawled out of her bed and into her uniform.

"Get up, we need coffee!" Rory mumbled at her mother, shoving her off the bed.

"Urgh!" Lorelai exclaimed as she hit the ground and glared up at her offspring.

"Luke's awaits," Rory chirped, and Lorelai instantly jerked up.

"Luke's?" she attempted to confirm.

"Yup, Luke's," Rory agreed and walked out of her room.

Half an hour later, they were both full clothed and on their way to Luke's. The bus was going to arrive in another twenty minutes, perfect coffee-obtaining time. As they stumbled into the diner, Rory instantly looked around for Jess. All she saw was the swing of the curtain as it closed and Luke's eyes glancing at her in fear.

"Coffee!" she begged, throwing herself over the counter.

"Make that two, and a dozen doughnuts!" Lorelai proclaimed, swinging herself in beside her daughter.

"Get off the counter," Luke grumbled, nudging them both with coffee cups.

Rory attached herself to hers and watched in fascination as the brown liquid was poured into the cup. She instantly started drinking when he was finished and was finished before he was even done pouring Lorelai's.

"More?" she pleaded.

"Already?" Luke asked in horror.

"More?" she said again.

Luke looked at Lorelai, who nodded towards the cup. He poured more coffee into it and then wandered away before they could ask for any more insane favors.

"Is she gone yet?" was growled from behind the curtain.

"You're being an idiot," the women heard hissed back. Luke was standing suspiciously close to the curtain, talking to someone behind it.

"I'm going to be late for school," the person behind the curtain replied. Rory rolled her eyes and stood up, going to the curtain and stepping behind it to see Jess standing there, looking awkward.

"Don't say anything. I want you to be there on Saturday, and I'm sorry that you don't feel the same way. But I wanted to give you a warning and tell you that my dad is going to be there and that I 'am' going to be introducing you as my boyfriend and that you'll probably want to meet him before we actually go in there. That way at least the awkward meeting will be a little less awkward than it could be. Don't say anything!" she interrupted him as he was about to say something again. "Just… meet us there, because I have to be there a few hours early. Goodbye."

"Rory!" he objected, stepping out into the diner to chase her as she ran to the bus.

"Sorry, kid," Lorelai mumbled.

"Jeez…" Jess sighed, shaking his head.

"Didn't tell her?" Luke questioned.

"She didn't let me open my mouth," Jess pointed out.

"Smart girl," Lorelai chimed in.

The men both sat and glared at her. "I have to go to school," Jess grumbled and stormed out of the diner.

Rory stared absently out a window, not realizing that class had ended ten minutes ago.

"Gilmore!" Paris shouted.

"What?" Rory jumped, suddenly realizing that she'd missed the entire class.

"We have to go out for dinner," Paris informed her with a glare.

"Why?" Rory grumbled, placing her head on her desk again. Paris didn't know about the Jess-situation.

"What's the matter with you?" Paris harped and sat down on the desk beside her.

"I have a lot on my mind right now… I don't know if dinner's such a good idea," Rory admitted.

"But the ball is tomorrow. Tomorrow, Rory! I only agreed to go to it because you said that you didn't want to be the only idiot there, and now you're leaving me here without any other idiots to go with? Fine then, I won't go," Paris proclaimed.

"No, I'm still going… and fine, let's go," Rory attempted to appease her shrieking.

"Good," Paris snapped and they got to their feet. Rory shuffled to her lock and slammed her books into it and took out the one she needed to place into her backpack. "I can't believe I let you talk me into this."

"You wanted to go, you were just looking for an excuse," Rory quoted, remembering Paris's former statement when Rory had originally asked her. Apparently Paris had a deep, hidden urge to at least be 'accepted' into society, even if she wasn't liked.

"That's beside the point," Paris brushed off. "So we're going to the salon at ten, we'll be there until two and then go to the hall and my mother hired someone to have our make up done and someone to do the final placements on our hair, because I have it on good word that your grandmother's stylist has multiple girls there and I don't want us to be 'multiple girls'."

Paris continued to ramble, but Rory had stopped listening awhile ago. They'd gone over this a million times and Paris would probably recite it a million more times over dinner. Even though she dearly wished to have a good time, she knew that she'd be miserable knowing that Jess didn't love her as well.

"Alright, what's going on?" Paris snapped again, grabbing Rory's shoulder and forcing the sullen girl's blue eyes to hers.

"It's nothing," Rory sighed.

"It's that diner-boy isn't it?" Paris half-shouted. "I'll kill him."

"No, I mean, yes, it is Jess, but don't kill him. He's still my escort," Rory objected. "Did you get someone? You were saying that you had someone in mind last week."

"Yes, I did," Paris admitted, a blush rising on her indignant cheeks.

"And he is…?" Rory continued, glad that the spotlight was off of her.

"Tristin," Paris proclaimed, and Rory tripped over her feet. She had to catch herself on a passing car.

"What?!" Rory exclaimed, staring at her in horror.

"Tristin Dugrey," Paris stated again, getting into the driver's seat of her car as Rory slipped into the passenger seat.

"I thought that you hated Tristin?" Rory muttered. "I mean, after what he did last year."

"Yes, but I wanted to see Summer squirm," Paris said evilly, and there was the slightest hint if malice in her eyes.

"Wow," Rory muttered after a few seconds. Paris started the car and drove them towards Stars Hollow.

"Are we still allowed to go to Luke's?" Paris inquired.

"Why wouldn't we be?" Rory questioned, the statement about Tristin chasing Jess away from her brain for a second.

"We're still not allowed to go into Doose's," Paris pointed out.

"Oh… no, Jess knows. He has to be there, my dad's coming," Rory explained.

"What?" Paris swerved a little bit. "I thought that it was just going to be you, Lorelai and I."

"Well… my dad actually agreed to come, so we decided that we'd do introductions so he wouldn't slaughter Jess tomorrow night," Rory said with a shrug.

"In order to avoid a scene that will embarrass me for the rest of my life, I will agree with you and move on," Paris nodded, knowing how terrible Jess was with adults.

They swung into Stars Hollow and made it to the last good parking space outside Luke's just as Lorelai was turning the corner. They grinned at her as she glared at them and had to park across the street.

"Hello Lorelai," Paris greeted stiffly, but there was still that little glint in her eye.

"What's she so happy about?" Lorelai asked with fear in her voice.

"She's tormenting Summer," Rory explained.

"Oh… you mean that girl that vandalized the paper a few weeks ago?" Lorelai inquired, searching in her mind for that particular rant.

"Yes," Paris snapped, and then motioned to the diner. "Are we eating or not?"

"Chris isn't here yet," Lorelai said softly, and Rory's eyes instantly fell downwards.

"He isn't coming?" she whispered.

"No, he's coming. I called him… he's just not here, yet," Lorelai attempted to deflect.

"Either way, I'm hungry," Paris grumbled and marched to the diner.

"Remind me again how you can stand her?" Lorelai moaned, shaking her head in disbelief.

Rory didn't say anything. She just grumbled a little under her breath and stormed off after Paris. Lorelai sighed and followed the two stormy teenagers.

"Coffee!" the two Gilmore women asked in unison.

"On the way," Paris told them, pointing at a booth that had two cups on it and then at Jess who was on his way to said table with a pot of coffee.

"My savior!" Lorelai chirped, grinning at Jess, who looked at her warily.

"You're not going to attempt to get Patty to 'repay' me again?" he twitched, looking around for the woman.

"Nope, and speaking of Miss Patty, you two have a dance lesson in the studio in two hours," Lorelai informed them with a very evil look.

"What?" they both deadpanned, and Jess accidentally filled Lorelai's cup too much, spilling coffee in her lap.

"Hey! I was just joking!" Lorelai shrieked, and Jess pulled back.

"Shit," he muttered and went for a cloth.

"Smooth," Rory grinned, nodding at her mother.

"I didn't think he'd attempt murder," Lorelai grumbled.

"That wasn't murder. What's murder is if he forgets to put the extra salt on the fries again," Paris snapped, sitting down next to Lorelai in anticipation of Jess's arrival at the table. A man walked into the diner and Rory and Lorelai grinned.

Rory jumped off her seat and took off at him, hugging him tightly. "Dad!" she greeted.

"Hey," he returned, hugging her close and smiling at Lorelai.

"I didn't hear the bike," Lorelai commented, and looked out the window for it.

"That's because it's not here," he informed them.

"Where is it?" Rory questioned.

"In Boston," Chris deflected again and led her back to the table. They sat down together and Paris raised an eyebrow at Rory, who cringed and looked at the counter were Jess was standing.

"Uh… hey, Jess! Could you come here for a minute?" she called. They were staring at each other the entire time, it wasn't as though he didn't know precisely what was on her mind, but she felt that she had to say it anyway.

"What?" he grumbled as he got to their table.

"Two burgers and some Mac and Cheese," Luke said as he got to their table, placing their orders in front of him and interrupting Jess's rude entrance.

"Thanks," everyone at the table replied.

"Did you want something?" Luke asked Chris coldly.

"I'll be fine," Chris blinked, not understanding the animosity.

"Jess, can you sit down?" Rory asked, noticing him standing off to the side awkwardly.

"Yeah," he muttered after a second, as though he was attempting to think of some sort of excuse not to stay. He sat beside Paris, which earned him a disgusted look. Awkwardness seemed to spread over the table. Paris was the only one immune. She was eating her Mac and Cheese with enthusiasm, watching the others with amusement.

"So…" Chris began, looking at everyone curiously.

"Dad… this is Jess, Jess… this is my dad," Rory finally said after another few seconds of silence.

"Uh…" Chris responded, obviously not sure where this was coming from.

"He's her boyfriend," Paris scoffed.

"Oh," Chris stated, finally realizing why this had been so awkward.

"Jess…" Rory pleaded, looking at him carefully.

"Nice to meet you," he said, every word had to be forced from his mouth.

"You too," Chris returned, and they shook hands awkwardly.

"Wow…" Lorelai muttered, shaking her head.

"What?" Paris instantly questioned.

"I knew it was going to be weird but… wow," Lorelai repeated.

"What?" Rory continued on Paris's line of questioning.

"They're the same," Paris explained.

"What?" Chris and Jess asked in unison, and then gave each other strange looks.

"They're the same," Paris said again. "Both of them were in the same position at this time in their lives. Jess, behold, your future."

Jess and Chris stared at each other in horror and then looked at the women who were looking at them calculatedly. "I guess I can see it," Rory finally admitted.

"So… wow," Lorelai said again.

"I'm not this guy!" Jess objected, glaring at Chris.

"My hair wasn't that pointy!" Chris chimed in.

"I like my hair," Jess snapped.

"I like it too!" Lorelai chirped, gaining both of their glares. "And your hair was just as bad."

"I think we need to go for a walk," Chris suggested to Jess, who merely nodded at him sharply. They stood and stormed out of the diner, continuing to glare at each other.

"Jeez, what was that all about?" Luke asked as he made his way over to their table with refills for their coffees.

"That was a mirror seeing its own image," Paris informed him.

"What?" Luke inquired, and Rory and Lorelai sighed.

"Chris and Jess are just a lot alike," Lorelai explained before Paris could go into some long-winded explanation.

"Oh…" Luke shrugged and left again.

"I guess I won't get to talk to him tonight, then," Rory muttered, hanging her head a little bit.

"As much as I'd love to sit here and watch you mope some more, I have to get home and sleep so that I'll be ready for tomorrow," Paris stated.

"It's not even five o'clock," Lorelai deadpanned, staring at Paris.

"But it'll take me an hour to get home and then another two hours to do my homework and then I have to read the next ten chapters of my biology textbook," Paris explained.

"But that's a second year university textbook," Rory objected.

"You have to be prepared," Paris shrugged and stood up. She placed down some money and stormed out of the diner much the same way that she'd come in.

"Don't say it," Rory snapped to her mother, whose mouth had opened to ask the age-old question.

"As amazingly awkward as that was, it was funny to watch them," Lorelai said instead.

"Yeah… at least she didn't start comparing them, that would have been bad," Rory sighed.

"Especially with the whole 'pregnant' thing," Lorelai grumbled.

"Hey," Rory objected with a glare.

"No 'hey' about it," Lorelai shook her head. "It's going to happen… you two can't keep your hands off each other. It's cute, in a disgusting way."

"But he doesn't love me," Rory sulked, leaning back in her booth a little bit.

"I think that you need to talk to him before you say that," Lorelai informed her gently.

"Why?" Rory grumped.

"Remember how I told you I talked to him?" Lorelai reminded her with raised eyebrows and stood up to leave.

"Wait, he said that…?" Rory questioned, chasing after her mother.

"You need to talk to him!" Lorelai deflected.

"Do you think dad will kill him before I get to talk to him?" Rory asked, suddenly nervous for her boyfriend's wellbeing.

"You're doing the Jess-dance again," Lorelai pointed out.

"Well, I can't help it. If he loves me… then I wanna know!" Rory whined.

"You'll just have to wait until tomorrow," Lorelai sighed, wrapping an arm around her daughter's shoulder and leading her to the door.

"But I won't see him until the ball!" Rory gaped in horror.

"You can always come for some breakfast before you go to the salon with Paris," Lorelai shrugged.

"But Paris will probably be over tomorrow at seven to do a couple hours worth of panicking before we actually have to go," Rory whimpered.

"Then I guess you're out of luck," Lorelai chirped happily and wrapped an arm around her.

"Why are you so happy?" Rory asked suspiciously, glaring at her mother.

"Because with every fight there is a make-up, and as long as that make-up is being put off, I'll be happy," Lorelai proclaimed. "In fact, why bother even making up? Just stay fighting!"

"I thought that you were apart of the non-fighting movement?" Rory grumbled.

"But that was before I remembered the making up bit," Lorelai pointed out.

"But what if I want to do the whole 'making up' bit?" Rory sulked.

"Then I will support you and give you this," Lorelai stated, and handed her daughter a condom.

"What?" Rory shrieked and hid it in her pocket.

"I know that it's coming… and as much as I want you to stay my little girl forever, I want even more not to be a grandmother before I'm forty," she stated, hugging Rory close again.

"I won't…" Rory trailed off.

"I know, but… still," Lorelai sighed and they broke apart, walking towards the jeep again. In the distance, they saw Chris and Jess glaring at each other some more. Shaking her head, Rory crawled into the jeep and got ready for the long night ahead of her that would be followed by the long day ahead of her tomorrow.

It was barely five o'clock and Paris and Rory were sitting in front of a pair of lighted mirrors in the dressing room. Paris had literally kicked out the two people who were sitting there, verbally abusing them until they'd rather take a non-lighted mirror than deal with her.

"Good work," Rory praised her as she fiddled around with her make-up a little bit.

"They're late," Paris snarled, checking her watch.

"By what, fifteen seconds?" Rory scoffed.

"Thirty now!" Paris pointed out as the ladies entered. "You're late!"

"We're sorry, Miss Gellar," the women apologized fearfully and got started on their charges.

Another hour and a half later, the girls were sitting in their chairs, fully dressed, and made up, jeweled and beautiful. Rory had never seen Paris glow quite as much as she did in that moment.

"Do you still like him?" she asked curiously.

"I don't know," Paris admitted guiltily.

"I'll threaten his life if you'd like?" Rory suggested.

"You would?" Paris asked with large eyes.

"Of course!" Rory chirped and they shared a moment of understanding. They both understood the other better than a lot of people would think possible.

"Rory!" someone called from the door, and she turned in confusion to see her mother bustle into the room.

"What's the matter?" Rory asked as she noted the panicked expression on her mother's face.

"It's Jess," Lorelai informed her.

"What about him?" Rory felt her stomach drop. "Isn't he here?"

"Oh, yeah, he's here," Lorelai sighed, pressing a hand to her forehead. "Did we never mention that this thing was supposed to be black and white?"

"What's he wearing?" Rory gaped in horror.

"Red," Paris interjected.

"What?" Lorelai and Rory said in unison, turning to look at her.

"Red… he'd wear red. It's passion's colour, the opposite of white on a tuxedo. Of course he'd wear red," she shrugged. "He also called me last night."

"So he's wearing red?" Rory stated.

"Yes," Lorelai confirmed, still glancing at Paris in fear.

"How is grandma taking it?" Rory attempted. Damage control, it was something she'd gotten rather good at since she'd started dating him.

"Not well," Lorelai sighed. "They're currently fighting over whether or not they're actually going to let him participate."

"What?" Rory shrieked, and rose to her feet, ready to go downstairs to give them a piece of her mind.

"Don't worry, Chris is down there. He thinks it's funny so he's defending him. Apparently they came to an understanding last night," Lorelai said, catching her daughter and tossing her back into her chair. "But I still need to get back there to help."

"Thanks for telling me," Rory whimpered, holding her head in her hands and sighing.

"Don't do that, you'll ruin your make up," Paris reprimanded. "And we have to be in the hallway in two minutes."

"Okay, fine," Rory growled, snatching her fan angrily and storming into the hallway. Paris rolled her eyes and followed her.

"Paris Gellar!" was called from the microphone on the stairs and Rory watched in fear as Paris descended the stairs with her grandfather on her arm. For some strange reason, it was difficult to imagine Paris being escorted. Even now, she was escorting her father. Their arms were in the reversed position. She'd put up a fight when they'd attempted to tell her that they needed to be the opposite direction.

"Hey dad?" Rory said as it was just about her turn. He looked down at her with a nod. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Anything," he agreed with a small smile.

"Just… don't let me fall," she requested.

"Right back at'cha," he quipped and she smiled tightly at him.

"And thank you… for standing up for Jess," Rory added.

"You're welcome," he smiled at her, and then they returned to listening tensely.

"Lorelai Gilmore!" the woman called. "Daughter of Christopher Hayden and Lorelai Gilmore."

Rory carried on her tight smile as she descended the stairs. Unable to keep herself, her eyes flickered down to Jess. He was standing in a black tuxedo with a red over shirt, black cummerbund and red gloves. The red brought out his dark complexion and made her heart swim. On her entire descent, their eyes never left one another's.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her dad kissed her cheek and handed her off to Jess. The second her hand touched his, she felt a thrill of anticipation run up her arm. He smirked down at her, knowing precisely what he was doing to her, and she couldn't help but smile shyly up at him. He escorted her over to the platform and helped her up onto the stage.

"He looks good," Paris commented from beside her, but her eyes were locked on one of the other escorts. Rory looked over to see Tristin and Jess size each other up and stand next to each other tightly. Of course they would fight, two roosters in the same hen house never worked out well.

"Yeah, he does," she agreed absently, but her eyes were locked onto Jess's. When the 'fan dance' began, she started into it hesitantly, constantly distracted by Jess and then by someone laughing in the crowd. Her eyes flickered over to her family's table, where her father was attempting to hold back his laughter and Lorelai was desperately attempting not to laugh with him. When the fan dance finally ended, the escorts were waiting to take them into the first dance.

"You're beautiful," Jess whispered into her ear as he helped her off the stage. She grinned up at him and laid her head on his chest.

The first dance went well. Surprisingly, Jess knew what he was doing. Rory was able to follow him through the dance, his hand gently guiding her whenever she lost her step. At the end of it, she was finally free to take him onto the side of the floor. He sat down and she stepped between his legs.

"Jess…" she started, but he cut her off with a soft kiss.

"I love you," he told her carefully yet confidently. It never ceased to amaze her how he could be so amazingly insecure in his comments and yet mean them completely.

"I know," she nodded and kissed him again.

"Hey love-birds," Paris snapped from behind them. They broke away and glared at her in annoyance. "Dinner's about to start."

"Hey Mary… or not so Mary," Tristin greeted her.

"Bible boy?" Jess inquired with a frown.

"Yup," Rory agreed and stepped away from him so he could stand up. "Hi Tristin."

"Who's this?" Tristin asked, motioning towards Jess.

"Her boyfriend, Jess," Paris growled, emphasizing 'boyfriend'.

"Ah," Tristin replied, rolling his eyes and offering his arm to Paris.

"That's a weird couple," Jess stated when they walked away.

"Any weirder than us?" Rory inquired with a small smile.

"Opposites attract," he shrugged, wrapping an arm around her waist casually and walking her to the table.

Two hours later, Rory, Jess, Lorelai and Chris were struggling down the street, attempting to get to Luke's. "I'm hungry," Rory proclaimed loudly.

"After an evening of fighting grandparents and Paris… I can't blame you," Lorelai sighed and turned to Chris. "You want something?"

"Actually, I have to get back to Boston," he cringed.

"Oh… okay, Rory, I'll meet you inside," Lorelai told her, and Rory nodded, taking Jess's hand and stumbling the rest of the way into Luke's.

"Coffee?" Jess asked, walking behind the counter and getting her a cup.

"My hero," she worshipped, taking the coffee and drinking it soothingly as he poured it.

"What do you want to eat?" he asked her, taking off his jacket and hanging it on the back of the chair beside her.

"Cheeseburger?" she requested.

"Fries?" he inquired, writing something on a pad of paper.

"Sure," she nodded. "And one for my mom too!"

"Already got it," he smirked at her and handed the order to Cesear in the kitchen. Rory took the moment to watch him. He'd come a little undone over dinner. His shirt had been yanked out of his pants, his bowtie was hanging undone around his neck and the first two buttons on his shirt had been undone, bearing just a little bit of his chest to the world. His hair was a mess, although that was mostly due to her, and he had just the slightest hint of a smirk on his face. Rory smiled at him when he turned around and he looked at her suspiciously.

"Were you watching me?" he demanded.

"Yup," she admitted cheerfully.

"Stalker," he accused, walking over and sitting beside her. They kissed softly at first, but it grew in passion until she had slithered out of her chair and was sitting on his lap, ruining his hair some more.

"Break it up," Luke grumbled as he stepped down from the stairs. "Food's up."

"Got it," Jess sighed, placing Rory back on her chair and going over to grab their meals. When he stepped back to their table, Lorelai was just getting there.

"Hey," she said to them.

"Hi," Rory greeted back, Jess merely nodded.

"So, back from the ball?" Luke greeted as he meandered to their table.

"Yup, I left a glass slipper and a business card in case the prince if very dumb," Lorelai quipped, smiling at him. Jess sat down again beside Rory and their hands entwined beneath the table.

"Good and desperate thinking," Luke rolled his eyes and looked at Rory and Jess. "The secret's out."

"Yeah… kinda came with the 'I love you' in the square," Jess scoffed under his breath.

"Guess you two will just have to deal with a pack of groupies," Lorelai taunted, but there was something off about her.

"Guess so," Rory sighed, taking a bite out of her burger hungrily.

"Jess, upstairs, change," Luke ordered with a thumb towards the stairs.

"Alright," Jess agreed, kissing Rory's cheek and picking up this jacket.

"So you two talked?" Lorelai asked when Luke stepped away.

"Yup," Rory chirped.

"And…?" Lorelai pressed.

Rory didn't say anything, the smile said it all. She blushed a little bit as she thought about what had gone on in the past few days. A month… only a month and they were already positive that they were completely in love. It was weird. She'd dated Dean three months and she hadn't loved him. Maybe Jess was just special. She spaced out and was brought back to life when her mother started talking to her. Even through their little discussion about having someone to talk to, she couldn't help but think back to him again and again.

Getting home was a blessing, and she was out of her dress within a minute of their entrance. Her hair was down. She was in her pajamas and was just settling into a book when her phone rang. "Hello?" she greeted cheerfully.

"Rory?" Paris's panicked voice asked on the other side of the phone.

"Paris?" she asked, putting the book down. "What's up?"

"I had sex with him," Paris admitted quickly.

"What?" Rory whispered into the phone, looking around to make sure that the imaginary fairies in her head hadn't heard.

"I had sex with Tristin," Paris repeated.

"Okay… wow, what happened?" Rory prodded.

"We were at my house, he was dropping me off, and my parents weren't home. I asked him if he wanted dinner, he agreed, and it happened there… on the kitchen table," Paris blurted.

"Ew… are you okay with this?" Rory cringed.

"I don't know, should I be okay with this?" Paris shot back.

"Paris… calm down. Is Tristin still there?" Rory soothed.

"Yes, he's in the washroom," Paris hissed.

"Talk to him and call me back after," Rory sighed.

"But I don't know what to say to him!" Paris objected loudly.

"Just talk to him!" Rory snapped.

"Fine, I'll call you back," Paris growled.

An hour later, Paris still hadn't called her back, and Rory felt her eyes wanting to close. She thought back through the day, and then over the past month. It had been perfect. They were perfect. What would things have been like if she hadn't met him in New York? Would she still be with Dean? Would he have still been sent here? The thoughts swam around in her head as her eyes closed and she fell asleep, the Hemingway dropping from her tired hands.


End file.
